The AIDAaura, the Seetours cruiser that is now home porting in Montego Bay.

JAMAICA'S tourism officials are gearing for what is shaping up to be an extremely busy winter season marked by heavy airlift out of North America and Europe.

At least six chartered services operating a total of 16 weekly flights, and 11 carriers running a combined 236 scheduled flights weekly are expected to bring hundreds of thousands of visitors here over the December 15, 2003 to April 30, 2004 season.

In fact, so promising is the airlift, that the Jamaica Tourist Board's normally conservative Statistics Department has projected that stopover arrivals this calendar year will total 1.3 million, up from the 1.2 million recorded last year -- an increase of 8.3 per cent.

MORRISON... we've invested heavily in airlift

Add to that the expected growth in cruise passenger arrivals from 865,419 last year to 1.1 million by the end of next month and it becomes even clearer why the industry is so upbeat these days.

"Jamaica is a strong brand," is JTB chairman Dennis Morrison's take on the island's rebound from the plunge in leisure travel after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the USA.

In fact, said Morrison, the global shift in travel post 9/11 is a result of the Caribbean being seen as a safe destination, and Jamaica's food, culture and people are emerging as powerful assets.

PENNICOOK... if everything goes well, we should have a terrific winter

"We've also invested heavily in airlift, through Air Jamaica opening new gateways," Morrison said, explaining that other airlines, on seeing the possibility of filling seats into Jamaica, have established scheduled and charter services.

Director of Tourism Paul Pennicook agreed. "A lot of credit must go to Air Jamaica," he said, "for opening certain gateways. That has been a catalyst for the growth in airlift Jamaica is experiencing now... Other airlines saw what was happening and came into the market."

Air Jamaica, which carries more than 50 per cent of all airline passengers to the island, operates 139 flights to Jamaica weekly from North America and Britain.

Pennicook also credited the aggressive marketing Jamaica's tourism industry has done among tour operators in Europe, as well as the Port Authority, which got the operators of the AIDAaura cruise ship to establish Montego Bay as the vessel's home port.

The AIDAaura, which made its maiden voyage from Montego Bay two Saturdays ago, is the newest ship in the Seetours fleet and will leave from the resort city every Saturday until April 17 next year. It has a passenger capacity of 1,600.

German airline, LTU, is the carrier associated with the AIDAaura. In addition to flying cruise passengers here, LTU is also bringing in stopover tourists from Germany.

LTU, as well as Britannia, with one weekly flight out of London, Gatwick; Skyservice, offering six weekly flights from Toronto; Condor, which is flying three times weekly out of Frankfurt and Munich, Germany; Martinair, with one weekly flight from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and American Airlines, running 42 flights weekly, help make up the impressive list of major carriers operating chartered and scheduled service to Jamaica this winter.

Yesterday, Pennicook could hardly contain his glee. In a telephone interview with the Sunday Observer, he said that in the past, one of the major concerns expressed by the industry was whether the island had enough airlift.

"If everything goes well," he said, "we should have a terrific winter."

The fear factor

Feeding the multitude

DANGEROUS PETS