Jamaica welcomes one-millionth visitor

Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

Despite Edmund Bartlett's hope of two million stopover visitors by year end not materialising, the tourism minister is forecasting tourist arrivals will close out at 1.9 million for 2010, four per cent more than last year's figure.

Since the start of the year, some 1.3 million airline passengers have visited the island, translating into over $1 billion in earnings despite the west Kingston unrest, said Bartlett.

To end 2010 with a four per cent increase over 2009 would be the highest record to date, also in terms of earnings, said Bartlett as he welcomed the one-millionth visitor to the Sangster International Airport and the tourism capital yesterday.

Americans Angela Wilson and her husband Aaron, who arrived on Air Tran from Baltimore, United States, made the one-millionth mark. The two, who are staying at one of the island's small hotels, Catch-A-Falling Star in Negril, selected the island for their second wedding anniversary vacation spot.

Jamaica remains a preferred honeymoon destination for couples.

Impressive figures

Honeymooners contributed to the recently concluded winter tourist season's buoyancy. The minister reports a figure of 887,000 for the period January to May. He is convinced that had there not been a fallout, as a consequence of the turbulence, the results would be more impressive.

He estimates that the country experienced a reduction of 1.8 per cent during that time.

With those challenges slowly dissipating, both the minister and the tourism director are cautiously optimistic about the fall - September to December. "September could be flat with a moderate increase in arrivals," said Lynch, ponting out that bookings were spontaneous, which is the trend.

In the past month, the island's hoteliers have been offering heavy discounting to plug any further fallout. Some resorts have been offering discounts as high as 60 per cent and as low as 20 per cent in order to fill their rooms.

To complement that strategy, the tourism director announced that a set of 2,000 travel agents would be exposed to the product. "They will be in groups of 500 and will arrive during the month of September," Lynch stated.

In addition, a number of blitzes have been planned for Canada, which Minister Bartlett said remained the country's fastest growth market, and Europe, which includes the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Holland.

According to the tourism director, for the upcoming winter tourist season, which kicks off December 15, Canada's West Jet will double the number of flights to the island, in line with JetBlue, which recently added an extra flight to its Montego Bay route.