The Travel & Tourism Development Index 2026, published on 25 September, moved Jamaica from 82nd to 78th, with a score of 3.65 out of seven. No other economy in the Americas rose as many places. Jamaica's Ministry of Tourism welcomed the result in a statement issued on 1 October. The Cayman Islands is not among the economies assessed, so no like-for-like score for Cayman exists.

The index measures the conditions that support tourism rather than tourism itself. It does not count arrivals or earnings, and the report says so in its opening section. On the Jamaican Ministry's own figures, the island's visitor arrivals and earnings fell in 2025 from the year before, a point set out below.

What the index measures, and what it does not

The index is produced by the World Economic Forum with Zurich Insurance Group. It is the 10th edition of a series that began in 2007 as the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index and was relaunched in its present form in 2022. It scores 17 pillars built from 102 indicators, grouped under five headings: the enabling environment, policy, infrastructure and services, resources, and sustainability. The pillars range from safety, health and the labour market to price competitiveness, air and port infrastructure, natural and cultural resources and the socioeconomic impact of tourism.

Scores run from one to seven. Hard data is normalised against the highest and lowest values in the sample, and responses from the Forum's Executive Opinion Survey are already on that scale. The report cautions that data revisions and coverage changes limit comparison with earlier editions, and that the 2026 edition recalculated the 2019, 2021 and 2024 results on the new basis. Jamaica's four-place rise is measured against that recalculated 2024 position.

Jamaica's score rose 2.3% between 2024 and 2026 and now sits two places above its recalculated 2019 position, the Ministry's statement said. The Dominican Republic, at 66th with a score of 3.93 and unchanged in rank from 2024, is the higher ranked of the two Caribbean economies in the 2026 edition, the report's rankings table shows. Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago were covered in 2024 but not this year, along with seven other economies, and none was added, the report's section on economy coverage says.

The global picture

The report describes a sector that has moved past recovery. Between the 2024 and 2026 editions, 101 of the 110 ranked economies, or 92%, improved their score, and the average rose by around 2.1%, the fastest pace since 2019. The strongest gains came in cultural resources, tourist services and infrastructure, and air transport infrastructure. Japan tops the table, followed by the U.S., Spain, Australia, France, Germany, the UK, China, Switzerland and Italy, the same ten economies as in 2024 in a different order. Albania was the most improved economy overall, up 7.0%.

Two findings sit behind the headline numbers. Only around one-third of ranked economies reduced visa requirements between 2024 and 2026, with most of that movement in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and North Africa, while European and North American economies continue to maintain some of the highest visa requirements on average. And the pillar that measures tourism's economic and social impact declined by 3.5% between 2024 and 2026 and improved in only around 17% of economies. The index data were collected in May 2026.

Why Cayman is not ranked

The report's technical notes set out the entry conditions. To be included, an economy must have taken part in at least one of the last three of the Forum's Executive Opinion Surveys, which account for a large share of the indicators; must not be missing data for 10% or more of all indicators, or for between 20% and 33% of the indicators within any single pillar; and must not be partaking in a conflict that generates enough damage to make the indicators outdated.

The survey is carried out by Partner Institutes in each economy, listed in Appendix D of the report. Jamaica's are the Mona School of Business and Management at the University of the West Indies, JAMPRO and the National Competitiveness Council Jamaica. No Cayman Islands institution appears in the list, and the Cayman Islands is not among the 110 economies in the 2026 edition; the islands are not mentioned anywhere in the 83-page report.

The effect is that the 2026 table carries scores for two Caribbean economies, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, and none for Cayman.

Rising prices are the warning for the region

The report finds that affordability has become one of tourism's biggest constraints. Price competitiveness declined by 3.1% on average across ranked economies between 2024 and 2026 and fell in 75% of them. Higher labour, food and energy costs probably contributed, the report says, with petrol prices up in about 65% of ranked economies since 2024 and mid-range and upper hotel room rates up by an average of 6%.

For the Americas, the report says gains in cultural resources, tourist services and air transport infrastructure were held back by that decline in price competitiveness. The region's average score rose 1.6%, ahead only of sub-Saharan Africa at 1.1% among the five regions and behind Asia-Pacific at 3.6%, the Middle East and North Africa at 2.5%, and Europe and Eurasia at 1.8%.

The report also draws a general conclusion about expensive destinations with cheaper neighbours. For higher-cost destinations, it says, rising prices increase the pressure to justify them through stronger infrastructure, service quality and destination management. For lower-cost destinations, improving conditions can create an opening, and that opportunity "can be particularly strong for destinations located close to more expensive tourism markets", the report says in section 3.2, giving the Balkans and Eastern Europe drawing travellers from Western, Southern and Northern Europe as its example.

Costa Rica is the report's case study of a high-cost destination holding its position. It ranks 86th on price competitiveness yet fourth on the sustainability dimension and third for government prioritisation of tourism. While its international arrivals grew by only around 1% in 2025, the report says, average visitor spending rose from about US$1,602 to US$1,848 a trip, an increase of around 15%. The lesson the report draws for expensive destinations is that competitiveness increasingly depends on demonstrating that the visitor experience justifies the cost.

Investment and workers

Two further findings apply to every destination in the region. World Travel & Tourism Council analysis of G20 economies, cited in the report, finds that tourism capital investment has lagged behind demand since 2022 and that the gap is expected to persist until 2033. The business environment pillar has remained largely stagnant since 2024, with fewer than half of ranked economies improving.

The report treats the ability to keep operating through disruption as a competitive advantage in its own right. The destinations that do best, it says, will be those that can keep functioning and adapt, not those that simply grow the fastest; its example is the 2024 wildfires near Jasper, Alberta, which it says cost an estimated CAN$4.5 million a day in tourism revenue.

On staffing, the report says the sector faces significant difficulty attracting and retaining workers, particularly younger people, who cite long and unpredictable hours, limited flexibility and weak career progression. It cites a projected shortfall of 43 million tourism workers by 2035, 16% below required levels, and the Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 finding that 55% of accommodation, food and leisure businesses had difficulty attracting talent, against 37% across all industries.

What Jamaica says it is building

Jamaica's Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett MP, set out the expansion plans on 15 September at a media breakfast during the Jamaica Product Exchange trade show at Moon Palace Jamaica in Ocho Rios, speaking by video link from Dubai, according to the Ministry's release of 17 September. The Ministry said Jamaica plans approximately 20,000 new hotel rooms within 10 to 15 years, with about 5,000 under construction, and is targeting 10 million visitors and US$10 billion in annual earnings within a decade under what it calls its Tourism 3.0 agenda.

Bartlett said new branded hotels were planned and existing properties were adding rooms; that airline discussions would bring additional flights into Montego Bay next year, with Jamaica positioned as a hub for Middle Eastern and South American carriers; that more cruise ports were to be established; and that the country's first licensed casino was expected to begin operating early next year at the Princess Grand Jamaica resort at Green Island, near Negril. Jamaica's Casino Gaming Commission granted that casino's operator's licence to Adamas Grand Casino Limited in July, with a deadline of 31 March 2027 to meet the licence conditions, the Jamaica Gleaner reported on 30 July.

The Ministry said about 75% of hotel room inventory affected by Hurricane Melissa, which struck western Jamaica in late October 2025, was back in operation, and that close to all staff were expected back at work by the end of the first quarter of 2027.

In an interview published by the Jamaica Information Service on 18 September, Bartlett said the Tourism Workers Pension Scheme, launched in January 2022, had about J$6 billion in savings and about 11,000 registered workers, under 10% of the sector's workforce, with a target of J$100 billion within 10 years. At the scheme's annual general meeting the same day he set a target of 50,000 members by 2028, the Jamaica Gleaner reported on 21 September.

On the ranking itself, Bartlett told the Tourism Awareness Week AI Youth Forum at Sandals Dunn's River on 1 October, "Moving from 82nd to 78th is not just four places, it is validation." The Ministry and its agencies said they would continue to use international competitiveness indicators to inform policy, strengthen destination management and guide investment.

Jamaica's 2025 results were below 2024 on the Ministry's own figures. The Ministry said in June that Jamaica welcomed 3.7 million visitors in 2025, comprising 2.6 million stopover arrivals and 1.1 million cruise passengers, with gross foreign exchange earnings estimated at US$4 billion. In January 2025 the Ministry had reported 4.3 million visitors and US$4.3 billion in earnings for 2024.

Where the Caribbean sits in the table

The report does not treat the Caribbean as a subregion of its own. Jamaica and the Dominican Republic are placed in a North and Central America group of 12 economies alongside the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Costa Rica, whose average score is 3.96. Jamaica's 3.65 sits below that average and the Dominican Republic's 3.93 just under it.

The report's key findings close on the point that resilience is becoming a competitive advantage. Recent events, it says, including disruption to international aviation after the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East and the heatwaves and wildfires in Europe and North America, show how quickly tourism systems can come under pressure, and what singles out successful destinations is not only the strength of their assets but their ability to adapt and keep functioning in times of uncertainty.

For the Cayman Islands, the 2026 edition offers no score, no pillar breakdown and no subregional placing against which any of those findings can be measured, and the report's entry conditions require participation in the Forum's Executive Opinion Survey before any economy can be assessed.