MONTEGO BAY, St James – Tracey Groden, accompanied by her husband Robert and two children, became the one millionth visitor to the island from the USA this year when they disembarked Air Jamaica flight JM 010 at the Sangster International Airport in this resort city on Tuesday.

A high-powered contingent of tourism officials, including tourism minister Aloun Assamba, director of tourism Paul Pennicook, tourism director general Carol Guntley-Brady, and Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) president Horace Peterkin, was on hand to meet the American family and to present them with gifts to mark the historic occasion.

“I am very pleased to welcome Tracey and her family to Jamaica and we are very happy that you have chosen Jamaica for your vacation,” Assamba said in welcoming the family.

She added that achieving the milestone is a clear indication of the level of confidence the Americans have placed in the island as a tourist destination.

“It also shows that the Jamaica Tourist Board and their marketing programme are succeeding because we are breaking barriers and we are breaking records,” the tourism minister argued.

Tracy, a real estate broker, had last visited the island 23 years ago, but it was the first time her husband of eight years, who is a financial consultant as well as her son Dylon, 12, and her six year-old daughter, Phoebe, were visiting the island.

But with tickets to Jamaica compliments of Air Jamaica and hotel accommodation at Half Moon Hotel among the gifts they received Tuesday, the family, who are now vacationing at Beaches Negril, might return to the island soon.

“I always have great memories of Jamaica even though it is such a long time I haven’t been back before now. I always tell my husband that I wanted to come back because the people are so gracious, so lovely and so warm,” Tracy said.

The family, who lives in Manhattan, plans to return to the island next year.

Pennicook told the Observer, meanwhile, that preliminary figures indicate that the island will experience a four per cent increase in stopover arrivals this year, when compared to 2004.

“We had targeted an eight per cent but with the challenges in the summer obviously we are not going to make that, but we are very pleased to be actually ending up with about four per cent which is about 1.41 million visitors,” he said.

The island experienced a 2.4 per cent decline in stopover arrivals during the summer period of May to September.

– cummingsm@jamaicaobserver.com