JAPEX 2026, now in its 36th year, drew 416 delegates to the Moon Palace in Ocho Rios, including representatives from 74 supplier companies and 86 buyer companies, according to Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association president OBrian Heron, speaking to the Gleaner. The trade show has become the venue where Jamaican hotels that closed or scaled back after Hurricane Melissa pitch their reopening to the buyers who fill their rooms.
One property represented at the show, an existing 214-room resort, is adding enough rooms to reach close to 300 on completion, according to its general manager. Renovations include upgraded guestrooms and a new lobby lounge, alongside a beachside restaurant being built across the road on Kent Avenue that will serve hotel guests by day and open to the Jamaican public for dinner in the evenings once it opens next year.
That combination, expanding room count while also building outward-facing amenities meant to draw local as well as tourist traffic, reflects a pattern across several of this years JAPEX exhibitors: renovation dollars going toward both the room product buyers actually book and the public-facing spaces that build local goodwill and repeat local spending, rather than pure room-count expansion alone.
For an industry still working through Melissas room-count losses, a well-attended JAPEX carries more weight than usual. Buyer company attendance at close to 90 firms suggests genuine international appetite to book Jamaican inventory again, even as individual properties are still mid-renovation rather than fully back online.
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