Jul 2017 Financial News

Record Tourist Arrivals Forecast for Jamaica This Summer

Jul 19, 2017

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Wednesday July 19, 2017 – Jamaica’s summer arrival figures are shaping up to be the highest on record, according to Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett.

Visitor arrivals have been at an all-time high since the start of the year, with the country welcoming a historic one million tourists in June. And Bartlett says if the arrival numbers are sustained, “the final figures will take the industry to new heights”.

“We are (gearing up) to increase our seats…by over seven per cent for the summer, and if that can translate itself into a percentage increase in arrivals… Jamaica is on to a very good path,” he said.

“We are getting more rooms, we are getting more airlifts, we are getting more visitors, and we are earning more.”

The Tourism Minister made the comments recently as he welcomed the inaugural Eurowings non-stop flight from Germany, which carried 291 passengers from Cologne to the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay.

Bartlett reported that arrivals from Germany have been growing steadily.

“Since the start of the year, January to April, we welcomed over 9,800 German visitors to the island, and that represents a 24 per cent over last year. We are excited about the figures at the end of June and we have a strong feeling that this 9,800 will get close to 12,000,” Bartlett said.

Eurowings has scheduled two flights each week into Sangster, up to the end of October.

Chief Executive Officer of MBJ Airports Limited, Dr Rafael Echevarne, said the new flight “adds a demographic of travellers to Jamaica who will not only stay on the island longer, but definitely spend more while they are here”.

Source:
Caribbean360
Wednesday July 19, 2017

http://www.caribbean360.com/travel/record-tourist-arrivals-forecast-jamaica-summer