WESTERN BUREAU: Lip-syncing has found its way into the Sandals Resorts International’s (SRI) Hall of Fame as the chain’s general managers took a virtual battle to unprecedented levels. “Though lip-syncing was the name of the game, the teams left...
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaica experienced its best period of tourist arrivals between December 22 and 26, with some 19,000 visitors landing at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, the highest since the country’s borders reopened in June....
WESTERN BUREAU: The woman who became the first female pilot to captain an Air Jamaica aircraft has hung up her wings after more than four decades of commandeering the skies. A Montegonian by birth, Captain Maria Ziadie-Haddad, who has the record of...
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) Negril Chapter chair, Ann Chen, is pleading with residents of Westmoreland not to lose courage or succumb to “COVID fatigue” as recent scientific developments signal that an end to the...
WESTERN BUREAU: As Jamaica closed its borders to United Kingdom flights on Monday, the country’s largest lobby of hoteliers and tour operators has thrown its weight behind the Holness administration’s decision to shut out British travellers amid...
WESTERN BUREAU: The call Brenda Isaac received recently is the kind many firefighters say no one wants to hear. Isaac was in Atlanta, Georgia, when her Jamaican neighbour telephoned her about a blaze at her Highland House home in Montego Bay, St...
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaica is to make a decision within the next 72 hours on whether it will introduce travel restrictions on United Kingdom flights coming into the island as an aggressive new COVID-19 strain that is 70 per cent more contagious has...
WESTERN BUREAU: THE CLUBHOUSE at the world-famous Doctor’s Cave Bathing Club has been renamed in honour of the late Montego Bay businessman and philanthropist, Antony ‘Tony’ Hart. In a sand-lit ceremony complemented by a backdrop of the sun fading...
WESTERN BUREAU: The raging COVID-19 pandemic has severely dampened prospects of a resurgent winter tourist season, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), Clifton Reader, has forecast. In an unusually sombre letter to members...
WESTERN BUREAU: Failure to deliver the rehabilitation of the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) three years after closing sections of the main building to the medical facility is being blamed on a lack of local expertise. That has prompted Health and...
WESTERN BUREAU: British Airways has ended its 11-year drought with Montego Bay, bringing hope to the struggling tourism sector by introducing two weekly flights for the winter tourist season. The flights herald the recovery of the tourism industry...
WESTERN BUREAU: With Westmoreland struggling with a double dose of health crises in dengue and the coronavirus, Savanna-la-Mar Mayor Berthel Moore has called for more police personnel to be deployed to the parish to boost enforcement of COVID-19...
WESTERN BUREAU: Bauxite operations by Noranda in Special Mining Lease (SML) 173 of the Cockpit Country will not cause above-ground and subsurface water pollution, environmental consultant Dr Conrad Douglas has said. Douglas said, during a...
WESTERN BUREAU: The main players behind an environmental impact assessment (EIA) related to mining in the controversial Cockpit Country’s SML 173 are insisting that Tuesday night’s community consultation presenting the findings was not a sham. Dr...
WESTERN BUREAU: RIU Resorts has spent millions of dollars on its largest Montego Bay hotel, unveiling a brand new state-of-the-art contemporary plant into the Jamaican tourism sector, accepting adults only, after closing eight months ago for...
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaica’s airline partners have committed 1.1 million seats for the upcoming winter tourist season, as the island seeks to regain its footing in the marketplace. Of that number, some 450,000 are seats added from the United States,...
Western Bureau: As the tourism industry struggles to return to some semblance of normality, Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett is reiterating an urgent call for the establishment of a Global Tourism Resilience Fund. A move he said was...
Western Bureau: Even in the midst of a pandemic, Jamaica has copped eight awards at the 27th annual World Travel Awards 2020. The island has been named the World’s Leading Family, Cruise and Wedding Destination, while brands such as Sandals Resorts...
WESTERN BUREAU: One year after a Toronto street was named after him, Jamaica-born Canadian B. Denham Jolly has again created history by being appointed Member of the Order of Canada, one of the country’s highest civilian honours. Created in 1967,...
An archaeological impact assessment conducted by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) has painted a gloomy picture for historical assets within the proposed Special Mining Lease (SML) 173, if the Government allows Noranda Jamaica Bauxite...
WESTERN BUREAU: In spite of potential long-term deforestation, bauxite mining in the Cockpit Country is likely to offer a game-changing fillip to the Jamaican economy, at least in the short term, if the Government allows Noranda Jamaica Bauxite...
Western Bureau: Like their airline counterparts, cruise lines on dry dock owing to COVID-19 are calling for a unified approach to travel guidelines for the Caribbean. Government and Community Engagement representative for the Caribbean at Carnival...
WESTERN BUREAU: All Jamaicans are now required to undergo a COVID-19 test in order to check into the Hedonism II hotel in Negril. Only tourists originating in four US states – Arizona, Texas, Florida, New York – are expected to present a COVID-19...
WESTERN BUREAU: As at Wednesday, November 18, American Airlines passengers connecting through Miami to Jamaica will have access to a mobile wellness wallet app that will be used to verify pretesting for COVID-19. A collaboration between the airline...
WESTERN BUREAU: Despite the cloud of uncertainty looming over international travel, MBJ Airports CEO Shane Munroe is projecting returns of between 50 and 75 per cent of the 2019 visitor-arrival figures by 2021. In 2019, MBJ Airports, which operates...
