Kingston emerging as fastest-growing destination in the Caribbean
ST JAMES, Jamaica – Despite heavy competition globally, Kingston is emerging as the fastest-growing individual destination in the Caribbean this summer, according to a recent report from ForwardKeys, a leading international travel analytics firm.
This was confirmed by senior advisor and strategist in the Ministry of Tourism, Delano Seiveright on Wednesday.
The news comes on the heels of a whirlwind visit to Kingston by American Actress Kerry Washington, who is scheduled to call on Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Friday.
Celebrities including Burna Boy, Chance the Rapper, Omarion, Cardi B, Offset and Maryland Governor Wes Moore were among recent visitors to the city.
According to an analysis of forward airline tickets for international arrivals by the respected analytics firm, Kingston’s arrivals are set to increase by nearly 30 per cent compared to the same period in 2022. This surpasses other popular destinations such as Nassau in the Bahamas, which experienced an impressive 18 per cent growth.
The massive rise in demand is reflected in Jamaica securing 1.4 million airline seats for the summer travel season, representing a 16 per cent increase over the previous record set in 2019. Notably, the United States of America, Jamaica’s main source market, has locked in 1.2 million of these seats. The load factors for summer flights are also reaching nearly 90 per cent, indicating strong passenger occupancy.
Seiveright further noted that JetBlue alone has scheduled up to five flights per day between New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport and Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport and four flights per day between Fort Lauderdale and Kingston this summer.
ForwardKeys establishes travel trends and provides insight into who is travelling, where and when, helping travel-dependent companies to understand their future business. Its flight search data, renowned for its comprehensiveness, encompasses billions of searches annually from a wide range of online travel agencies, airlines, and metasearch companies.
Notable platforms such as Google Flights, Kayak, Kiwi.com, Skyscanner, Wego, and many others contribute to this extensive dataset.
