MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica – With just three weeks to go before the December 15 start of the 2014/2015 Winter Tourist Season, Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism and Entertainment, the Hon. Dr. Wykeham McNeill is upbeat about the prospects for the season.
“We’re looking forward to having a very good winter season. All the indications are positive. I’ve just come back from the World Travel Market trade event in China and had discussions with our partners from the United States and Canada, and based on the feedback our bookings are very encouraging” he said.
The Minister, who was speaking at the just concluded Tourism Outlook Seminar 2014 (TOS), held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre, also made special mention of the fact that the Hyatt Ziva Rose Hall Resort will open in December following a multi-million dollar renovation project that has transformed the former Ritz Carlton hotel property. The all-inclusive hotel will be open to guests of all ages.
The optimism is also based on the fact that other properties which have been refurbished and are now being operated under new brands, have come on stream within the past year and are projecting high occupancy levels.
The cruise sector is also set to play a major role in boosting visitor arrivals to the island. “In terms of the cruise sector, we’ll also have the Thomson Dream, which is a real positive because it will be home porting in Jamaica so they’re going to get all their provisions here. In addition to that, we’ve worked out an arrangement with them, which will see them making a stop in Falmouth on the way back, so we’ll get two bites of the cherry,” he disclosed.
The Minister emphasized that the home porting of this mega liner in Montego Bay will also be complemented by four additional flights out of the United Kingdom into the Sangster International Airport to service the Thomson Dream.
Dr. McNeill sees “really exciting times ahead” with the growth in visitor arrivals continuing at a steady pace. He indicated that “based on preliminary figures our stopover arrivals from January to mid-November 2014 are up by some 4% over the same period for 2013, so we are on track to record more than 2 million stopover visitors once again. We’re also getting good business out of our traditional markets – US, UK, Canada and others.” This is also buoyed by the fact that “we had a very good summer and the immediate future looks bright,” he indicated.
