WESTERN BUREAU: Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett has said that while the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has brought tourism to a grinding halt, the industry remains optimistic. Bartlett, who was addressing stakeholders from his Knutsford...
WESTERN BUREAU: Two Jamaican men are hungry and homeless after being stranded by Caribbean Airlines. Miguel Bailey and Lendert Pearson are lamenting being forced to sleep at the Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados since Monday night....
WESTERN BUREAU: Jakes Treasure Beach is the first local hotel to offer its 65 rooms for quarantine or isolation purposes for COVID-19 patients, the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) has said. The resort, located in St Elizabeth, will...
WESTERN BUREAU: AS THE world mourns the death of late superstar Kenny Rogers, producer of the Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival Walter Elmore remembers the American singer-songwriter as a fabulous human being to work with. Elmore worked with Rogers,...
In a grim assessment of the aviation industry’s tailspin, Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said yesterday that traditional tourism as “we know it” is coming to a screeching halt. The minister, who was responding to a United States Department of...
WESTERN BUREAU: Plunging arrivals out of the United Kingdom and Canadian markets as a result of COVID-19 have forced at least four Spanish hotels and several attraction operators to close their doors. The hotels – RIU Palace Jamaica, RIU Negril,...
WESTERN BUREAU: In quarantine now for 64 days in China, Jamaican teacher Ashley Thompson could now claim rights to being an expert on resiliency and the inner workings of the human spirit. Even while admittedly homesick, frustrated, lonely, and...
WESTERN BUREAU: The Carnival Cruise Lines-owned Princess Cruises will halt global operations of its 18 cruise ships for two months, a move that will rock the tourism-dependent Caribbean, including Jamaica. It is also the first sign of a major crack...
WESTERN BUREAU: COVID-19 has slowed the pace of the island’s tourist arrivals for the summer by 40 per cent, says Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association President Omar Robinson. “We are in a wait-and-see position at this time, but the estimate of...
WESTERN BUREAU: A meeting between Jamaican government officials and Carnival Cruise Lines appears to have borne fruit – at least for now – as the vessel Carnival Vista returns to Ocho Rios this Wednesday. The cruise line threatened to cut Jamaica...
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaicans have been urged by at least two senior Cabinet ministers to brace for a near-complete shutdown of the cruise industry amid swirling concern over the novel coronavirus, which has surpassed 107,000 infections worldwide and...
WESTERN BUREAU: Guardsman Hospitality is heating up nightlife in Discovery Bay, St Ann, with its weekly Friday night Bakka Beach parties, aimed at bringing community members and guests from the surrounding hotels together. The aim, the group’s...
WESTERN BUREAU: A year after Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett announced his pioneering agri-tourism Backyard Garden Programme for the Lilliput community in St James, the initiative has not only blossomed, but has literally bore fruit. In March 2019...
WESTERN BUREAU: First Officer Shaun Nelson answered the vintage rotary phone next to his bed 22 years ago, responding to an American Eagle Airlines human resource officer offering him a job as a pilot. His colleague, Captain Robert McPherson, would...
WESTERN BUREAU: RIU Palace Jamaica bested 650 other resorts in the Caribbean to cop the United States-based Cheap Caribbean’s Noble Beach Prize Pineapple Award after being voted the ‘Customer Favourite’ by the online travel agency’s clients. The...
WESTERN BUREAU: A Montegonian has been named as the new head of MBJ Airports Limited, operator of Sangster International Airport in the parish of St James. Shane Munroe, a Cornwallian who has been working at Sangster for 18 years, was appointed...
WESTERN BUREAU: The success of the 2019 staging of the Jamaica Rum Festival was a foretaste of this year’s event and is set to enhance the country’s global appeal as a travel destination, Phillip Rose, Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) regional director...
The humble Atlantic herring, commonly known as sprat in Jamaica, was the given pride of place at Couples San Souci’s 14th anniversary celebrations recently. The chefs were kept busy because as soon as they reloaded the platters of the tiny fish...
WESTERN BUREAU: Residents of Hellshire in St Catherine are optimistic that Guardsman Hospitality’s investment in Fort Clarence Beach will transform the sleepy, suburban residential area into Jamaica’s next community tourism destination akin to...
WESTERN BUREAU: Currently on day 10 of a lockdown in her apartment, a Jamaican teacher in China says she has made an informed decision to stay put, although there have been several calls for her to return home amid a coronavirus outbreak in the...
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaica has imposed a ban on travel to and from China with immediate effect and there are jitters that the local tourist industry could be hurt by the snowballing coronavirus outbreak if it reaches these shores. The United States...
WESTERN BUREAU: A number of Jamaicans in Grand Cayman slept in their clothes and had their running shoes next to their beds, along with documents tucked away in waterproof bags, hours after an earthquake struck the Caribbean island on Tuesday....
Nassau, Bahamas: Highest recorded number of stopover visitors, highest recorded number of stopover visitors ever from the United States, and a whopping 7.2 million in total arrivals. That’s the report coming out of The Bahamas months after that...
