OTTAWA, Canada, Nov16, Jamaica’s Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett, Wednesday said that the island had been able to secure an estimated 26,000 more airline seats to the Caribbean island this winter.
“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,” said Bartlett, who is heading a delegation to Jamaica’s second-largest visitor market.
He said the increased seats are from major travel partners such as Air Canada Vacations, WestJet, Transat, and Sunwing.
“The marketing program for Canada is now in full gear,” said Bartlett, adding” “we are having meetings with our airline partners and tour operators.”
Bartlett, who is accompanied by the Director of Tourism, Donovan White, and the Jamaica Tourist Board’s Regional Director for Canada, Angella Bennett, will also visit Toronto, Calgary, Winnipeg, Montreal, and Ottawa.
“We are satisfied that the market has bounced back post-COVID,” Bartlett said, adding that 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”.
The visit is also being used to launch the JTB’s new “Come Back” campaign, and Bartlett said 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”.
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