Jamaica's tourism minister told a crowd in Florida that the island should be good to go for visitors by mid-December after Hurricane Melissa wrecked the western side back in October. Edmund Bartlett was hanging out with tourism officials and diaspora groups in Broward County, saying hotel workers basically left their destroyed homes to help clean up resorts because they needed the work to survive.
The Category 5 storm hit hard, but Bartlett said most of the tourism zone stayed operational since only about a third of the island got seriously messed up. Major chains like Sandals and RIU are already opening back up, and airports bounced back fast.
The US slapped a Level 3 travel warning on the country after the disaster, but officials think that'll drop soon since the World Bank apparently said they've never seen a recovery this quick. International lenders threw almost $7 billion at reconstruction over three years.
The Category 5 storm hit hard, but Bartlett said most of the tourism zone stayed operational since only about a third of the island got seriously messed up. Major chains like Sandals and RIU are already opening back up, and airports bounced back fast.
The US slapped a Level 3 travel warning on the country after the disaster, but officials think that'll drop soon since the World Bank apparently said they've never seen a recovery this quick. International lenders threw almost $7 billion at reconstruction over three years.
