Destination Jamaica has rebounded strongly in the Canadian market with commitments of airline seats for winter up by almost 30,000 over the numbers for 2019, before the pandemic.
Canada is Jamaica’s second largest visitor market.
“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,” Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett announced during a visit to Canada.
These are from major travel partners such as Air Canada Vacations, WestJet, Transat and Sunwing.
“The marketing programme for Canada is now in full gear. We are having meetings with our airline partners and tour operators,” the minister added.
He is being supported on the trip by Director of Tourism, Donovan White and the Jamaica Tourist Board’s Regional Director for Canada, Angella Bennett.
The working visit to Canada will see the team 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,” said Bartlett.
He said 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.
“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,” said Bartlett.
