ST JAMES, Jamaica — Senior Advisor and Strategist in the Ministry of Tourism, Delano Seiveright is elated that three major UK airlines, TUI, British Airways, and Virgin Atlantic will operate a combined total of at least 18 flights per week with Jamaica over the winter months.

Seiveright is among officials that Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett is leading in engagements with international tourism stakeholders in London, United Kingdom, for the World Travel Market.

“The ramp up will commence this month and run straight through the winter tourist season. TUI will have at least eight nonstop flights per week into Montego Bay from multiple UK cities; Virgin Atlantic will run a daily service into Montego Bay from London Heathrow and British Airways will continue to service Kingston nonstop,” Seiveright noted.

Bartlett is also accompanied at the World Travel Market, one of the largest international travel exhibitions, by chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), John Lynch and Director of Tourism, Donovan White. Jamaica is among thousands of participants in the annual World Travel Market (WTM) London, which showcases offerings from the biggest travel destinations, accommodation suppliers, airlines and tour operators. The occasion was also leveraged for the London media launch of the JTB’s “Come Back” marketing campaign.

“We could not be more pleased to highlight this positive milestone for this important market of the destination. It speaks to the dedication and hard work of our team here in the UK,” said Donovan White, Director of Tourism, Jamaica. Created by the JTB’s advertising agency, Accenture Song, the campaign showcases Jamaica’s picturesque natural attractions and its friendly, welcoming people working together to help visitors live their best lives.

Seiveright underscored that Jamaica is seeing a sustained surge in visitors from the United Kingdom all set to beat arrival and earnings records, with overall holidays to Jamaica selling at 25 to 40 per cent more than in 2019. This he noted is attributable to the decision by Bartlett to have his officials remain dynamic and strategically focused in the global tourism space over the last two and a half years.

In 2019 Jamaica welcomed 225,000 UK visitors, those numbers dipped significantly in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID 19 pandemic that ravaged global travel. In 2022, despite challenges at the beginning of the year due to the Omicron variant of COVID 19, Jamaica is still on track to surpass the record breaking 2019 numbers. If projections hold the island should welcome well over 225,000 UK visitors.

Bartlett in response to mounting queries from stakeholders about the availability of hotel rooms to meet the record-breaking demand noted that several hotel development projects amounting to thousands of new rooms are either already in development or are on track to commence soon.

Meanwhile, British Airways Holidays told Jamaica’s Senior Tourism officials at the World Travel Market in London, UK that the entity has sold over 15,800 room nights for their British customers coming to Jamaica this year alone, nearly tripling what they sold in 2019, which was just under 5,800 room nights.