WESTERN BUREAU:
Jamaica is experiencing a 33 per cent increase in air travel for the summer compared to 2022, according to reports from one of the world’s leading travel data analytics firms, Forwardkeys.
The island’s minister of tourism, Edmund Bartlett, made the announcement as he closed the 2023-2024 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives yesterday, on the eve of the start to the summer, which officially kicks off today.
“This is cemented by the fact that 1.4 million airline seats have been secured for the summer travel season, representing a 16 per cent increase over the previous best in 2019,” said the minister, adding that load factors for these flights are hovering at near 90 per cent.
His latest comments comes one month after he stated, during the opening of Sandals Dunn’s River in Ocho Rios, St Ann, that the island would receive 1.23 million visitors for the summer, the best summer projected in the history of Jamaica.
The island’s best summer was 2019, when the sector had at its disposal 1.2 million seats, welcoming some 1.06 million visitors.
Now, in full recovery mode from the COVID-19 pandemic, Jamaica’s main source market, the United States, has locked in 1.2 million of the seats. According to Bartlett, in the last six months, the island had received a combined two million stopover and cruise visitors with record earnings of US$2 billion, or 18 per cent above the 2019 earnings.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Tourism, he says, will conduct a Tourism Economic Impact Study, which seeks to identify the economic, fiscal, social and environmental impact of the development of an additional 15,000 to 20,000 rooms to augment Jamaica’s existing room stock.
Outlining a number of objectives, the tourism minister said the aim was to identify and evaluate the potential impact of the proposed developments on gross domestic product, foreign exchange earnings, investment, and government revenue and expenditure.
Proposed developments on income and employment, related sectors such as agriculture, construction, manufacturing and entertainment are among the objectives Bartlett hopes to achieve.
Most importantly, to provide a credible, rigorous evidence-base to inform the public awareness of the value of an industry that has been tagged the engine of economic growth for Jamaica.
“This is the most substantial increase in room stock, over the shortest period of time in Jamaica’s history. It represents a uniquely transformative moment. We must seize the moment to obtain the maximum social and economic benefit,” he argued.
Pointing to the strengthening of linkages as one of his main platforms, the tourism minister said through the Agri-Linkages Exchange (ALEX) application, small farmers are directly connected with buyers in the tourism industry, benefiting the local agricultural community.
In the first five months of this year, farmers achieved a remarkable milestone by generating a revenue of approximately $325 million through the ALEX platform.
“This significant accomplishment showcases the platform’s effectiveness in connecting farmers with potential buyers and creating prosperous opportunities,” he pointed out.
For him, the future of tourism is in technology, which he says is transforming the travel industry.
“The future of work in tourism will be revolutionised by machine intelligence and the Internet of Things. In collaboration with the World Bank, we will conduct a regional study on ‘The Future of Tourism in the Caribbean’. This study will guide us in creating a sustainable and integrated Caribbean tourism space.”