Jamaica secures record number of airline seats out of Canada for winter – Bartlett
ST JAMES, Jamaica – For the upcoming winter season, Jamaica has secured a record number of airline seats out of Canada, its second largest visitor market, Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett, announced Tuesday afternoon.
The airline seats are expected from major travel partners such as Air Canada Vacations, WestJet, Transat, and Sunwing.
“So far, we have been successful in commitments that will see the number of airline seats at a record 283,000 out of Canada to Jamaica this winter; 26,000 more seats than was recorded in 2019, pre-COVID-19,” Bartlett disclosed.
“The marketing programme for Canada is now in full gear and supported by Director of Tourism, Donovan White, and the Jamaica Tourist Board’s Regional Director for Canada, Angella Bennett, we are having meetings with our airline partners and tour operators,” he added.
Bartlett is currently on a working visit in Canada with a number of senior tourism officials. They will be engaged in a series of activities between various segments of the market that take in Toronto, Calgary, Winnipeg, Montreal and Ottawa.
“We are satisfied that the market has bounced back post-COVID,” the Tourism Minister declared.
“The 283,000 seats will go a long way in bringing us back to our levels of over 300,000 visitors that we had during the immediate pre-COVID period, but the objective is to get to 400,000 where we were in 2010,” he said.
The Canadian visit is also being used to launch the JTB’s new ‘Come Back’ campaign and Bartlett contends that “with added inventory coming in Jamaica and a new thrust in terms of the quality product and recognition of the value proposition that Jamaica offers, we are optimistic that in 2023/24 we will see a full recovery of the Canadian market to the levels that we were in the best of times in 2010.”