Impressive start to winter tourist season — Bartlett
Published:Monday | December 20, 2021 | 9:14 AM
JIS:
Five days into the winter tourist season, Jamaica is already seeing impressive visitor arrivals.
Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett told the Jamaica Information Service that some 25,000 passengers made their way through the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, St James over the past three days.
He said that the sector has not seen these arrival numbers since 2019.
"It's absolutely phenomenal…especially during a pandemic,” said Bartlett.
Since Friday there have been more than 159 flights into Montego Bay alone.
Saturday's 9,153 arrivals from 62 flights is the biggest single day record since the airports were reopened on June 15, last year.
On Sunday, there were some 52 flights on record.
"These numbers would be the type of figures we would see in the strongest weekends…even in pre-COVID times,” Bartlett said.
Meanwhile, chief strategist in the Tourism Ministry Delano Seiveright said Jamaica's cruise numbers will see an exponential increase in early 2022 when the western Caribbean route is fully opened.
He said Jamaica shares the same itinerary route with Grand Cayman, which is still closed.
“Cruise shipping should be resuming in Cayman in early February and that's when we should be seeing the huge Royal Caribbean Oasis-styled vessels coming our way,” he said.
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