ST JAMES, Jamaica- Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett, is elated over the news that Jamaica is projected to receive some 23,000 tourists out of Germany for the winter season.

Bartlett is particularly excited over the projections because if materialised, it would mean that the number of German arrivals would surpass the 2019 pre-COVID figure by 3,000. 

“We are excited about that 23,000 Germans coming in this season because we have adequacy of airlift,” Bartlett stated.  “Winter is looking good and Germany is responding. Pre-COVID we had 20,000 visitors coming from Germany; with COVID projection is for 23,000 Germans to come into our space.”

The Tourism Minister was speaking at the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) hosted German Market Growth Strategy Workshop at the Montego Bay Convention Centre on Wednesday.

Presenting an update on the tourism sector in Parliament on Tuesday and underscoring the importance of the German market, Bartlett reasoned that the inaugural flight by Eurowings, the third-largest European point-to-point carrier from Frankfurt, Germany to Montego Bay on November 4, with 211 passengers and crew, served as a booster for visitor arrivals out of Europe.

“The new service (from Eurowings) will fly twice weekly into Montego Bay, departing Wednesdays and Saturdays, and enhance access to the island from Europe. Additionally, Swiss leisure travel airline, Edelweiss, started new once-weekly flights into Jamaica while Condor Airlines restarted roughly twice-weekly flights between Frankfurt, Germany, and Montego Bay in July,” Bartlett said.

The Minister also added that come later this month, “we will start receiving at least 17 flights per week from the United Kingdom, bringing the island back to approximately 100 percent airline seat capacity as our tourism numbers rebound.”

“TUI, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are the three airlines carrying passengers between the UK and Jamaica with TUI operating six flights per week, Virgin Atlantic to increase to five flights per week and British Airways to operate five per week. The flights run out of London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham. Beyond that, we are likely to see further schedule changes as our teams continue discussions with our stakeholders,” Bartlett shared.

He also told the House of Representative that Jamaica is on track to receive 1.6 million visitors for this year and earn over US$2 billion.

“The good news is that December is usually a strong month for us, and it begins the high season when the rates are higher, so we will likely meet our forecast of 1.6 million visitors and over  US$2 billion in earnings,” he projected.

“By the end of 2022, Jamaica’s visitor numbers are expected to total 3.2 million, with cruise passengers accounting for 1.1 million and stopover arrivals accounting for roughly 2.1 million, while earnings are projected at US$3.3 billion.”

-Horace Hines