Negril tourism boom in November
Published:Friday | December 29, 2023 | 12:11 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Hoteliers in Negril, Westmoreland, are smiling all the way to the bank after experiencing an unusual surge in room occupancy for November and the ongoing winter tourist season.
Richard Wallace, managing director at Boardwalk Village, located along the famous Negril white-sand beach on Norman Manley Boulevard, described the tourism boom as winter in November.
“November was one of the best we have ever had for many, many years. It’s been perfect, and many hotels were full,” Wallace revealed.
“It appears the winter tourist season started from November this year,” a gleeful Wallace said.
He observed that while occupancy in November had reached an enormous high point, December started on the lower end.
“There was a little dip at the beginning of December, but based on bookings, we will be fully booked closer to Christmas into the New Year,” the senior hotelier and immediate past president of the Negril Chamber of Commerce and Industry projected.
“We are doing very well. Bookings are strong, and we are hoping that we will have the best winter season ever,” added Wallace.
Wallace made the observation after learning from tourism strategist Delano Seiveright that approximately 1.5 million airline seats have been secured from nearly 6,000 flights coming into Jamaica from the United States during the winter season.
RECORD NUMBERS
“We have seen record numbers of visitors to the island, certainly between Jamaica and the United States in terms of airline seats. We are looking at 120,000 extra airlines compared to the same period last year, for a total of about 1.5 million airline seats between the USA and Jamaica,” Seiveright told hoteliers in Negril recently.
“We have also seen a strong performance out of Canada. We have about 300,000 airline seats between Canada and Jamaica, and we have two new Canadian airlines that have commenced services to Jamaica,” he continued.
“For this winter, there’s an extrapolation of tourists arrivals likely to surpass many other similar seasons,” Seiveright noted.
Ten airlines have 5,914 flights booked out of key US gateways to Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay and Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston between January and April 2024.
The line-up of airlines for the period includes American Airlines with 305,436 seats booked on 1,727 flights; Southwest logging 106,925 seats on 611 flights; Delta with 205,776 seats on 1,119 flights; JetBlue with 242,347 seats on 1,434 flights; United booking 92,911 seats on 525 flights; and Frontier flying in with 25,482 seats on 137 flights.
Also contributing to the overall increase of 121,104 seats over the corresponding 2022-23 winter period are Spirit, Sun Country, and ALG Charter, with a combined 65,677 seats on 361 flights.
With these numbers, Dalton “Penny” Hill, businessman and owner of Light House 2, which consists of a restaurant and several guest house operations on the West End Road in Negril, is beaming with excitement while sharing that the winter tourism season is currently bouncing up well.
“Believe me, the season has been quite good, I must admit. It has been doing very well,” Hill told The Gleaner on Thursday.
“We believe that we are going to have a very good tourism season this winter,” the hospitality businessman said.
Meanwhile, in a bid to reduce the level of congestion in Lucea, Hanover, the National Works Agency has implemented major traffic changes, including converting the Willie Delisser Drive in Lucea from a one-way traffic system to accommodate two lanes of traffic travelling in either direction
Other changes are the provision of turning lanes in the vicinity of Main Street, Willie Delisser Boulevard, and Church Street and its intersection with Willie Delisser Drive. There are three roadways, namely Main Street, Malcolm Heights, and Millers Drive, in and around the town that have since been repaired to provide ease of movement.