TORONTO, Canada – Jamaica’s Director of Tourism, Basil Smith, has said that the Canadian market continues to outpace all other markets in terms of visitor arrivals to Jamaica.
“We had a 34 per cent increase last year and for the first five months of this year, there was a 29 per cent increase of visitors from Canada,” he informed, noting that there was a whopping 108 per cent increase from the western province of British Columbia.
Mr. Smith, along with Deputy Director, David Shields, was in Toronto recently, to receive a special award from the Baxter Travel Media Group. The JTB’s Canadian office was voted ‘Canada Favorite Tourist Board’ in a survey conducted by the media group earlier this year.
President of the group, David McClung, who made the presentation, noted that more than 4,000 Canadian travel agents voted in the 2007 Agents’ Choice Awards conducted by the group in its two flagship publications, Canadian Travel Press and Travel Courier.
Mr. Smith, in the meantime, praised JTB’s Director in Canada, Sandra Scott, and her team, for their hard work in winning the award.
Director of Tourism, Basil Smith (2nd right), proudly holds the 2007 Agents’ Choice Awards from the Baxter Travel Media Group, naming the Jamaica Tourist Board as ‘Canada’s Favourite Tourist Board’. The presentation was made recently in Toronto, Canada, by David McClung, (2nd left) President of Baxter Travel Media Group and Edith Baxter (right), Editor-in-Chief of Baxter Travel Media Group). Also sharing the moment is the JTB’s Director in Canada, Sandra Scott (left).
“We have a great team here in Canada and I thank them for their hard work. I have been told that one of the things travel agents like is that when they call the JTB office in Canada, they actually get a live body and not a recording, and we get back to our travel partners in a timely manner,” he stated.
Earlier this year, the JTB became the only tourist board to have a representative in Western Canada, when it appointed Sahara Abu, who is based in Calgary, Alberta.
Jamaica also won the Most Favorite Destination in the 2007 Agents’ Choice Awards.
