MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica – Senior Advisor and Strategist in the Ministry of Tourism, Delano Seiveright, says that the Canadian government’s decision to scrap all COVID-19 travel restrictions will serve as a boost for increased stopover visitors from the country, which has long been Jamaica’s second largest tourist source market.

The Government of Canada has ended COVID-19 border restrictions, including mandatory vaccinations; random on-arrival testing, and has made the ArriveCAN app optional.

The policy changes will come into effect on Saturday, October 1, 2022.

Federal health minister, Jean-Yves Duclos, in an announcement on Monday, stated that Canada is “in a much better position” than it was earlier in the pandemic, in part due to the availability of COVID-19 vaccines and treatment options.

The changes mean foreign nationals will no longer require an approved series of COVID-19 vaccinations to enter the country. It also means travellers entering Canada will no longer be subject to random mandatory COVID-19 tests. The requirement for unvaccinated Canadians to isolate when they return to the country also no longer applies.

“Minister Bartlett and the Jamaica Tourist Board will lead engagements with a swathe of travel partners in October. These changes are most welcome as Canada has been one of the strictest of all jurisdictions as it relates to COVID-19 and severely dampened the appetite for travel by its citizens and members of the Diaspora,” Seiveright noted.

“Our stopover arrival numbers from Canada are still far below pre-pandemic 2019 numbers, whilst the United States and United Kingdom numbers in recent months have run ahead of 2019 numbers.”