Senior executives at Expedia Inc, the largest online travel agency in the world and the biggest producer of tourism business for Jamaica, have assured Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett and other senior officials that the country’s visitor numbers are headed in the right direction.
According to a release from the tourism ministry, Expedia executives have noted that “their data clearly shows impressive room night and passenger growth with both metrics surpassing the same time in 2019”. They also noted that the United States of America remains the overall top search origin market for Jamaica.
The welcome news comes despite slowing global travel demand triggered by the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19 and associated issues. The slowing has negatively impacted Jamaica’s tourism sector, however there is growing confidence that the situation soon improve.
“So far our engagements with key tourism stakeholders in the United States have been positive. There are COVID-19 related concerns, however confidence in growth for Jamaica remains very strong,” Bartlett noted. “We will continue to leave nothing to chance and reinforce the safety of the Resilient Corridors, our improving and way above average COVID-19 vaccination rates across the tourism sector and the simple fact that Jamaica is the best destination to vacation in the Caribbean.”
The largely confidential data analytics presentation was held at the Expedia Inc corporate office in Miami, Florida on September 27. Bartlett was joined by Chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board, John Lynch; Director of Tourism, Donovan White; Senior Strategist in the Tourism Ministry, Delano Seiveright and Deputy Director of Tourism for the Americas, Donnie Dawson. The Expedia engagement is one in a series of meetings with several travel industry leaders, including major airlines, cruise lines and investors, across Jamaica’s largest source markets — the United States and Canada. This is being done to increase arrivals to the destination in the coming weeks and months, as well as, to foster further investment in the local tourism sector.
Expedia Inc, is the third largest travel company in the US, and the fourth largest travel company in the world. Its websites, which are primarily travel fare aggregators and travel metasearch engines, include Expedia.com, Vrbo (previously HomeAway), Hotels.com, Hotwire.com, Orbitz, Travelocity, trivago and CarRentals.com.
Source: Ministry of Tourism
