MONTEGO BAY, St James — State minister in the Ministry of Tourism Senator Delano Seiveright is projecting a strong summer and robust winter tourist season. His optimism stems from the Government’s successful tourism diversification strategy — highlighted by Wednesday’s inaugural World2Fly flight from Lisbon to Montego Bay — and the recent positive adjustment in the US travel advisory on Jamaica.

“It’s looking good so far. I think the last several months have been particularly difficult, certainly the last six to eight months, given the US presidential elections and many other distractions — of course, bad weather and a number of other factors. But we’re seeing a fairly strong summer so far. We expect a bullish winter,” Seiveright said.

“We’re excited to welcome the arrival of World2Fly in Jamaica today. It forms part of our market diversification strategy as it relates to airlift and where we get our tourists from,” he added at Montego Bay’s Sangster International Airport (SIA) after World2Fly arrived with 360 passengers from Portugal.

He noted that while most of Jamaica’s tourists are from the United States and Canada, with fewer from the UK and continental Europe, efforts to improve arrivals from other markets are paying off.

According to the state minister, Government has actively engaged private airline partners to boost connectivity, leading to World2Fly launching its weekly flight between Lisbon and Montego Bay. The service, given a 90 per cent load factor, has now been extended to 18 rotations — a strong sign of Jamaica’s growing appeal to Portuguese travellers.

“We believe this Portuguese strategy is working, and we’re exploring new ways in which we can get flights, possibly out of Spain. We have had some discussions about that. We hope to have some positive movement on that in the coming months and in the coming year,” he disclosed.

Seiveright noted that most European visitors are from the United Kingdom, followed by Germany, with Italy and France also contributing, but said full flights from Lisbon signal strong demand from Portugal and point to the potential of other European markets.

“There is a huge untapped market in Portugal, Spain, and other European countries that we want to corner and we want to get aggressive about. So we’ve been talking to all the charter airlines there; we have been talking to some of the schedule carriers there to see how they can add services to ensure that Jamaica continues to benefit,” he explained.

“We have continued to expand in other spaces in Europe, and we are working on some other arrangements, including Virgin Atlantic that has confirmed that they’ll start daily non-stop flights between London, Heathrow, and Montego Bay, Jamaica, moving from four flights per week to a daily service. They have also altered the times of those flights so that passengers and persons travelling from other parts of Europe can better connect into London, Heathrow, and get into Jamaica as quickly as possible,” Seiveright added.

He said the diversification strategy is also bearing fruit in the Latin American market.

“We have non-stop flights between Lima, Peru, and Montego Bay, Jamaica, by LATAM, which restarted in December of 2024. Those flights are running in excess of 80 per cent load factors,” he said.

SIA Chairman Mark Hart, Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association President Jason Russell and Shane Munroe, the CEO of MBJ, operators of SIA, all welcomed Wednesday’s inaugural flight from Lisbon and expressed the hope that it will be increased to more than once per week. Hart also highlighted Jamaica’s readiness to deliver exceptional visitor experiences and thanked MBJ Airports for its efforts in ensuring a smooth arrival process for passengers heading to resorts.