One million seats for summer
US arrivals speed up tourism recovery
BOASTING A 173 per cent increase in visitor arrivals from the United States amid the withdrawal of COVID-19 restrictions, Jamaica has secured one million airline seats from that North American country i nto the i sland this summer.
And New York and its environs remain t he breadbasket for Jamaica tourism, portfolio minister Edmund Bartlett told journalists during the Jamaica Rum Festival launch in Manhattan last Friday night.
Now in its fourth year, the rum festival will make its debut in the tourism capital, Montego Bay, come Saturday, June 25.
Twinning the l aunch with the imminent Jamaica 60 Independence celebrations, Bartlett said the Jamaica Tourist Board is in negotiations with an airline to create a special Jamaica 60 flight between New York and Kingston. The flight will probably be a redeye arriving on Independence Day, August 6.
During his presentation at Jasmine’s Caribbean Restaurant, the tourism minister unveiled a programme that will see 60 couples, over 60 weeks, visiting Jamaica i n celebration of the country’s diamond anniversary of Independence.
Bartlett described Jamaica and the Dominican Republic as the two best-performing COVID recovery destinations in the Caribbean.
The tourism capital, Montego Bay, has also been touted as the second-fastest recovering city in the world.
Referencing the Rum Festival, Bartlett said the spirit and Jamaica were synonymous.
Bartlett also called for the diaspora to become ambassadors of the festival.
“We are going to celebrate this powerful derivative of our cultural ethnicity and our mix of rules and the ability to create and blend. There’s no better message to be given or better messenger than those who are Jamaicans here in New York,” he implored the gathering.
The Tristate area has the greatest density of Jamaicans outside of the island.
The Jamaica Rum Festival is being staged by Appleton Estate Jamaica Rum, in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and the Tourism Enhancement Fund.
Under the Spirits Pool Association Limited, other rums that will be presented include Hampden, Monymusk, Rum Fire, Rum-Bar, Wray & Nephew White Overproof, Kingston 62, Worthy Park Estate, and National Rums of Jamaica.