Jamaica’s tourism industry is in upbeat mood that Canada’s decision to lift all remaining restrictions on entry that were triggered by the novel coronavirus pandemic, will result in a rapid rebound in tourist travel from that North American country.

But it was not only the Jamaicans who were wildly cheering that decision, as a roomful of Canadian travel agents at the Sandals Ochi Beach Resort, St Ann, broke out in spontaneous applause when Canada’s High Commissioner to Kingston Emina Tudakovic said the special border requirements had come to an end on October 1, 2022.

” You know that as of October 1, there are no more [COVID-related] border requirements to get into Canada,” Tudakovic told the 100 travel agents at a dinner Monday evening — one of the high points of the 26th annual Canadian Travel Industry Golf Tournament hosted by Baxter Media and Sandals.

The 50-year-old Baxter Media is Canada’s premier travel trade publication group and the golf tournament celebrates a long partnership originally developed out of the friendship between its founder, Edith Baxter, and Sandals Resorts International (SRI) founder, Gordon “Butch” Stewart, both now deceased, said current executive vice-president and Baxter’s daughter, Wendy McClung.

Prior to the pandemic, Canada was the fastest-growing source market for Jamaican tourists, according to Gary Sadler, the Miami-based Jamaican who is senior vice-president of sales and industry relations at Unique Vacations Inc (UVI), affiliate of the worldwide representatives of Sandals and Beaches Resorts.

“It’s happening. The Canadians are coming back and this golf tournament, the first since the pandemic, is an example of reviving Canadian interest that obviously started with the travel agents who sell our rooms and the airlines like Air Canada, West Jet and JetBlue,” Sadler said Monday. “It’s no longer just talk.”

Supporting Sadler, Toronto-based Maureen Barnes-Smith, vice-president of sales and marketing, also a Jamaican, said each year more Canadian travel agents were participating in the golf tournament which was a growing niche in Jamaica. She said some had come for the first time this year while others had been coming from the inception, but all had testified that it was an amazing experience for them.

In the main address to the travel agents, High Commissioner Tudakovic noted: “Jamaica is super busy on the tourism front, super, super busy. And they’re demonstrating a lot of innovation and agility. I’ve been really impressed I think with the hustle frankly, from the minister of tourism to the Jamaica Tourism Board and people like Gary or Mr [Adam] Stewart.

“There’s a hustle, they want business here and there. They’re willing to work to get it and I admire that a lot…” said Tudakovic.

She reminded that relationship with the Caribbean was a priority for Canada — “It’s our backyard. We find it strategically important…We really do look at Jamaica as a partner, and significant partner, because values matter, democracy matters. And that’s very important for us.

“One of the reasons I actually applied to come to Jamaica is because we really do have a multifaceted relationship. We have a very strong defence partnership with Jamaica. We’ve been training Jamaican military for many, many years,” she said.

The diplomat said Jamaica in turn had been able to train military all over the Caribbean in humanitarian disaster response, adding that security was a real issue here, hence Canada did a lot of capacity-building in anti-crime programmes.

She drew attention to the fact that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Jamaica’s Andrew Holness had been co-conveners at the United Nations for the last couple of years on something called financing for development in the area of COVID-19 and beyond.

“This is super important. It’s one of those things no one hears about it, but it affects how the world works and can in Jamaica. Our prime ministers have been partners about looking at how do you finance countries in terms of development post-pandemic.”

Underscoring the relationship between the two countries, Tudakovic said there were 300,000 Jamaican-Canadians and lots of Canadians living in Jamaica. She highlighted the seasonal agricultural worker programme, saying, “Jamaica is one of our biggest partners in foreign labour.”