Bartlett monitoring US flight groundings, impact on Jamaica’s tourism
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett has revealed that he is currently gathering information on the development in the United States (US) where all flights were grounded on Friday.
Reports coming forward are that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all flights nationwide Friday afternoon because of communications problems at regional air traffic control centers.
“Well I am briefing myself on it because the US is our largest and most important market,” he told the Observer Online.
“More tourists come to us from the US from any other destination in the world and any aviation incident of that magnitude will impact Jamaica’s inbound tourism,” he added.
According to data, the United States is Jamaica’s largest source market for tourism, accounting for roughly 68.6% of total visitor arrivals.
“Therefore I am doing full research to find out exactly what the implications are, how long the airlines are expected to be grounded for, the nature of the aviation incident itself and how quickly we can expect a recovery of aviation activities in the US and particularly into the Caribbean and into Jamaica,” he said.
