MONTEGO BAY — “We were in dire straits, let me put it that way,” said Robin Russell, President of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) during a media breakfast at JAPEX 2023, the Jamaica Hotel & Tourist Association’s premier trade event, held earlier this month in Montego Bay.

It’s been a familiar refrain across the travel industry coming out of the pandemic, but when a country’s economy is as tied to tourism as it is in Jamaica, the negative effects of the global shutdown were all the more devastating.

Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett with Sanjay Kopalkar, Director Sales & Business Development, Canada Jetlines, and the JTB’s Director of Tourism, Donovan White

However, at the first in-person JAPEX since 2019, Jamaica is already gearing up for more than recovery as the island has its sights firmly set on growth.

“We’re the only sector that can say we went from zero to hero,” noted Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett. “We have moved from [the pandemic shutdown] to today where we are 5% ahead of 2019 and expectations are we will end the year at 2.8 – 2.9 million arrivals.”

Earnings are expected to be up some 22% over 2019 and Jamaica is now looking at USD$4.1 billion in revenue for 2023.

Being ahead of 2019 is especially significant as the year marked an all-time visitor record for Jamaica and, as Donovan White, Director of Tourism, Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), noted during his opening remarks, visitors are now staying slightly longer and spending more throughout their time in the destination.

“It’s been a fantastic year,” said White. “We’re growing in the right places and growing steadily on visitor numbers.”

Minister Bartlett highlighted that Jamaica is in the “largest wave of tourism investment” and is beginning to see the fruits of its labour, including 2,000 new rooms coming to the island in 2024.

For its part, the Canadian market share as a percentage of total visitors to Jamaica is down as U.S. travellers returned faster and in greater numbers to the island, but it is making a complete comeback of its own, which will be aided by more airlift into the country out of Canada.

MORE LIFT FROM CANADA

Key to the remarks and presentations during the trade event was the announcement that, as previously noted in Travelweek, leisure airline Canada Jetlines will be flying regularly scheduled, twice-weekly service (Saturdays and Sundays) from Toronto to Montego Bay, beginning November 5, 2023, and increasing to three times weekly in early 2024.

The value-focused airline’s goal is to fly five times weekly into Jamaica, and expand its reach beyond only Montego Bay. Sanjay Kopalkar, Director Sales & Business Development, Canada Jetlines, also told Travelweek that the airline has “many more destinations on the horizon starting in the first quarter of 2024.”

Additionally, while White couldn’t yet reveal the name of the airline, he noted that more airlift will be coming from Toronto to Kingston, which he noted was “extremely important for VFR and huge for our focus on events in Jamaica.”

“I believe by the end of the year we will not only have more seats out of Canada than last year, we’ll have more gateways as well connecting Montego Bay and Canada,” he said.

THE POWER OF THE DIASPORA

“You’ll never meet a shy Jamaican,” joked Philip Rose, Deputy Director, JTB and the former Regional Director of the JTB for Canada, as he opened his efficient and effective presentation entitled “On The Diaspora”

Rose talked about how it would be highly advantageous for the JTB to help further educate the Jamaican diaspora around the world about the destination’s tourism appeal in order to help empower the extensive international Jamaican population as unofficial tourism ambassadors for the island, noting that the JTB “needs to provide them with the narrative.”

Travelweek recently connected with Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, for a one-on-one interview. To find out more, click here.