Jamaica Targets 500,000 Canadian Arrivals By 2025

Describing it as an “ambitious but achievable” target, Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, is pushing for 500,000 visitors to Jamaica from Canada by 2025.

Minister Bartlett made the disclosure ahead of his arrival in Canada on September 19, where he will be joined by senior tourism officials on a five-day ‘winter marketing blitz’ as Jamaica seeks to engage critical travel partners in the Greater Toronto Area.

Said the Minister: “We have an overarching goal to welcome 5 million visitors and earn 5 billion dollars in tourism revenue by 2025. Canada is our second largest market and we are currently at just above the 300,000 mark and getting to where we were in 2010 when we had up to 400,000 visitors coming from Canada. My projections are driven by data, and I have evidence now that the Canadian market is ready to take us to half a million visitors within the next two years.”

He continued: “This initiative is about that – getting more airlift. We’re going to be talking with Air Canada, WestJet, Canada Jetlines, our new partners, and others to bolster the airlift out of Canada.”

Minister Bartlett also noted that his meetings in Toronto follow discussions held with Canadian travel partners at the just concluded JAPEX (Jamaica Product Exchange) trade show held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre from Sept. 11 to 13.

Go to www.visitjamaica.com for more.