Inspired by Sass..with a Don1 Assist

[Don1]

Winter Tourist Season Looks Bright For 2012
Published: Thursday | September 22, 2011


Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

THREE MONTHS ahead of the winter tourist season, Canadian tour operators in attendance at the just-concluded Jamaica Product Exchange 2011, say the island is way ahead of 2010 in terms of tourist arrivals from the North American country.

Combined, the largest Canadian tour operators, Air Transat, Sunwing and Sunquest are estimated to have some 300,000 seats from Canada into the Sangster International Airport this winter, and it is unclear how many Air Canada has planned.

"We will move from seven up to 17 flights per week this winter into Sangster from Toronto, the eastern provinces, Quebec and western Canada," Eric Rodriguez, vice-president of product development at Sunwing told The Gleaner. Rodriguez qualifies this as some 30,000 seats into the country.

According to the Sunwing executive, his company is looking to increase the traffic to Jamaica with new or existing partners. "We are hoping to improve the family market to Jamaica. Being the tour operator with the largest number of seats to the country, it is important for us to come up with concepts."

Already, they are now the exclusive sellers out of Canada of all four RIU hotels on the island. Other resorts such as SuperClubs, Grand Palladium, Iberostar Resorts, County Country and Couples are carried in their tour-operator programme.

Rodriquez describes Jamaica as a great destination that has a lot to offer, but must be sold the right way. "You have to cover a lot of segments in the market, whether it is baby boomers, couples, honeymooners, the wedding market and families," he explained.

Most fantastic season

Sunwing's biggest competitor, Thomas Cook Sunquest's Wayne Noseworthy, too, is predicting that Jamaica will experience one of the most fantastic winter seasons yet. Almost as if competing for the tourism pie, Sunquest will have 24 flights per week during the peak period, up from 17 flights last winter.

He said the only challenge facing the Canadians was the economy at home, so getting the right price for the travellers was important.

Their optimism comes at a time when Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has revealed that a number of new Latin American and European-based airlines are slated to begin flying into Jamaica before the end of the year.

Minister Bartlett outlined that "airlift is the centrepiece of our efforts to get visitors to the island".

Gwaan Bartlett!!

[Assasin]

Barlett on the English Case. Unnu watch and jump pon the wagon.

Tourism Minister going to the UK to hold talks on APD








Edmund Bartlett, Tourism Minister.

Edmund Bartlett, the Minister of Tourism, is to travel to the United Kingdom to collaborate with tour operators, who have experienced a drop in ticket sales to the Caribbean, due to the controversial Air Passenger Duty (APD).
There have been bitter complaints that since the duty was increased last year, it has made travellers choose cheaper destinations, and this has affected arrivals to the region.
Mr. Bartlett is not ruling out special packages that will entice tourists to the Caribbean.
"I’m heading there in a week or two to have further discussion to ensure that packages can be developed that will help to augment the ease that we’re trying to create and to create some cushion for the impact that the APD will have on the pockets of some of our future travelers," he said.

[Don1]

Barlett on the English Case. Unnu watch and jump pon the wagon.

Tourism Minister going to the UK to hold talks on APD








Edmund Bartlett, Tourism Minister.

Edmund Bartlett, the Minister of Tourism, is to travel to the United Kingdom to collaborate with tour operators, who have experienced a drop in ticket sales to the Caribbean, due to the controversial Air Passenger Duty (APD).
There have been bitter complaints that since the duty was increased last year, it has made travellers choose cheaper destinations, and this has affected arrivals to the region.
Mr. Bartlett is not ruling out special packages that will entice tourists to the Caribbean.
"I’m heading there in a week or two to have further discussion to ensure that packages can be developed that will help to augment the ease that we’re trying to create and to create some cushion for the impact that the APD will have on the pockets of some of our future travelers," he said.

Gwaan Bartlett!!