KINGSTON, Jamaica; November 04, 2021:  The third-largest European point-to-point carrier, Eurowings, made its inaugural flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to Montego Bay in St. James yesterday evening.

Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, elated by the news of this additional route from Germany, stated that it will undoubtedly strengthen the island’s connection with the European market.

“Jamaica was indeed very happy to welcome the inaugural flight from Eurowings yesterday evening. Germany has been a very strong market for us, with 23,000 visitors from their country coming to our shores in 2019 before the pandemic. I know that this figure will increase with nonstop flights now available from Eurowings and Condor,” said Bartlett.

“This flight from Germany will also aid in our mission to increase visitor arrivals from Europe, which my team has been actively engaging with. In fact, airline seat capacity between the UK and Jamaica is at 100% of what it was pre-COVID. We want to assure our partners and future visitors to the island that Jamaica is open for business and is a safe destination with a COVID infection rate nearing zero on the Resilient Corridor,” he added.

The Eurowings Discover aircraft, which had 211 passengers and crew, was greeted with a water cannon salute at the Sangster International Airport (SIA) upon arrival.

The passengers were welcomed by Deputy Mayor of Montego Bay, Councillor Richard Vernon; German Ambassador to Jamaica, His Excellency Dr. Stefan Keil; Executive Director of Jamaica Vacations Ltd. Joy Roberts; and Regional Director at the Jamaica Tourist Board, Odette Dyer.

The new service will fly twice weekly into Montego Bay, departing Wednesdays and Saturdays, and enhance access to the island from Europe. It is important to point out that Jamaica is looking at receiving 17 nonstop flights per week out of the United Kingdom. Additionally, Swiss leisure travel airline, Edelweiss, started new once-weekly flights into Jamaica while Condor Airlines restarted roughly twice-weekly flights between Frankfurt, Germany and Montego Bay in July.

Eurowings is the Lufthansa Group’s low-cost airline and, as such, part of the world’s largest aviation group. They operate a fleet of 139 planes and specialize in low-cost direct flights across Europe. 

London, United Kingdom; November 3, 2021: Senior executives of Amadeus, a European-based global travel technology company, today informed senior Jamaican tourism officials that the September 30 release of the latest James Bond movie, No Time to Die, which has multiple scenes in Jamaica, is aiding in driving interest in destination Jamaica, particularly in the United Kingdom.

No Time to Die looks poised to overtake Avengers: Endgame in the U.K., taking the fifth spot on the list of highest-grossing box office releases of all time from Marvel’s superhero blockbuster.

The briefing was given by Tom Starr and Alex Rayner, Vice President and Director at Amadeus respectively, at the World Travel Market in London, England. Amadeus’ technology and solutions serve as a backbone and power the global travel industry, including airlines, airports, hotels and railways, search engines, travel agencies and tour operations. The Amadeus executives noted that they are seeing very high search and booking interest and demand for destination Jamaica in the United Kingdom and attributed it to the work of the Ministry of Tourism and its agency the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) with key partners in the marketplace as well as the new James Bond movie.

The Ministries of Tourism and Culture and JAMPRO played leading roles in providing logistics, public relations and marketing for the latest Bond film.

Jamaica is Bond's spiritual home, with Ian Fleming writing Bond’s novels at his house, "Goldeneye." Bond films Dr. No and Live and Let Die were also filmed here. For No Time to Die , the filmmakers constructed Bond’s retirement beach house on San San Beach in Port Antonio. Other scenes filmed in Jamaica include his get-together with his friend Felix and meeting the new 007, Nomi. Jamaica also doubles for the exterior Cuba scenes.

Jamaica will this month start receiving at least 16 flights per week from the United Kingdom, bringing the island back to approximately 100 percent airline seat capacity as tourism numbers rebound. TUI, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are offering nonstop flights between the UK cities of London, Manchester, Birmingham and Jamaica.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett is leading a high-level team from the Ministry of Tourism and the JTB at the World Travel Market, one of the largest international tourism trade shows in the world. Bartlett is joined by JTB Chairman, John Lynch; Director of Tourism, Donovan White; Senior Advisor & Strategist, Ministry of Tourism, Delano Seiveright; and JTB Regional Director of the UK and Northern Europe, Elizabeth Fox. 

KINGSTON, Jamaica; November 03, 2021:   Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett today joined forces with tourism industry leaders from Kenya and Saudi Arabia to encourage other policymakers at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, UK, to make tourism part of the solution to climate change and COVID-19 pandemic recovery.

During his remarks, Bartlett noted that vaccines have become the big elephant in the room that is defining the global recovery levels. “Recovery from the pandemic is being affected by two critical elements – vaccine equity and vaccine hesitancy. Equity in relation to distribution so that all countries can recover together. The second is the use of technology to facilitate better communication and factual information about the vaccine and its application and efficacy so that more people are less hesitant,” said Bartlett.

“Unless we get to the point where more than 70 per cent of us are fully vaccinated, the recovery process is going to be painfully slow. We may very well find ourselves in another pandemic, worse than COVID-19,” he added.

Minister Bartlett, Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Tourism & Wildlife, Hon. Najib Balala, and Minister of Tourism for Saudi Arabia, His Excellency Ahmed Al Khateeb, shared their views on these issues during a panel discussion at the Conference, which was moderated by the Former President of Mexico, His Excellency Felipe Calderón.

During his remarks, Minister Al Khateeb stressed the importance of the tourism industry to the climate change recovery efforts. “The tourism industry, it goes without saying, wants to be a part of the solution to dangerous climate change. But, until now, being part of the solution has been far easier said than done. That’s because the tourism industry is deeply fragmented, complex and diverse. It cuts across so many other sectors,” he said.

Also on the panel were Rogier van den Berg, Global Director, World Resources Institute; Rose Mwebara, Director & Head of Climate Technology Center & Network at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); Virginia Messina, SVP Advocacy, World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC); Jeremy Oppenheim, Founder & Senior Partner, Systemic; and Nicolas Svenningen, Manager for Global Climate Action, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The twenty-sixth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26) to the UNFCCC is being hosted by the United Kingdom in partnership with Italy. The summit has brought parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. More than 190 world leaders are participating, along with tens of thousands of negotiators, government representatives, businesses and citizens for twelve days of talks.

London, United Kingdom; November 2, 2021: Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett yesterday (November 1) said that Jamaica will later this month start receiving at least 16 flights per week from the United Kingdom, bringing the island back to approximately 100 percent airline seat capacity as the nation’s tourism numbers rebound.

Bartlett is currently in the United Kingdom (UK) with a high-level team from the Ministry of Tourism and the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) participating in the World Travel Market, one of the largest international tourism trade shows in the world. Bartlett is joined by JTB Chairman, John Lynch; Director of Tourism, Donovan White; Senior Advisor & Strategist, Ministry of Tourism, Delano Seiveright; and JTB Regional Director of the UK and Northern Europe, Elizabeth Fox.

“We have had very good engagements with our key partners in the UK and have reassured them of Jamaica’s readiness for them and our safety as a destination, with a less than one percent Covid infection rate on the Resilient Corridor. Additionally, I am happy to see airline seat capacity between the UK and Jamaica at around 100 percent of what it was pre-Covid when we were on a very strong growth path. We are very serious about action and strong results, and I am pleased with what we are achieving so far,” Bartlett noted.

Meanwhile, Delano Seiveright noted that “TUI, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are the three airlines carrying passengers between the UK and Jamaica with TUI operating six flights per week, Virgin Atlantic to increase to five flights per week and British Airways to operate five per week. The flights run out of London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham. Beyond that, we are likely to see further schedule changes as our teams continue discussions with our stakeholders.”

The engagements in the UK bring to an end a global markets blitz led by Bartlett and his senior officials which included Jamaica’s two largest source markets, the United States and Canada, which reaped massive successes in dramatically boosting airlift to the island and reassuring stakeholders on the Covid related safety of the destination. The Minister also led engagements in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which in part will result in the opening up of tourism and investment opportunities for Jamaica.

London, United Kingdom; November 2, 2021: Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett today welcomed news that the United States of America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has removed Jamaica from its Level 4 “Avoid Travel to this Destination” risk assessment.

“This is a very positive development. I want to commend our health authorities and the people of Jamaica for working to bring down the rates of COVID-19 infections and hospitalisations, which augurs well for our risk assessment rankings. Beyond that, the Resilient Corridor remains a very safe space for visitors and workers alike with comparatively high vaccination rates and extremely low infection rates.”

Jamaica is now ranked at Level 3, which urges US travellers to be fully vaccinated before travelling. Despite CDC risk assessments, Americans by and large continue to travel to destinations they want to visit.

Senior Advisor and Strategist in the Ministry of Tourism, Delano Seiveright noted that “this is good news indeed. The previous Level 4 ranking caused jitters in some circles and was certainly not good optics. However, with this improved ranking it will be most helpful in our current and very aggressive efforts to boost tourist arrivals from all our markets.”

Minister Bartlett is currently in the United Kingdom (UK) with a high-level team from the Ministry of Tourism and the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) participating in the World Travel Market, one of the largest international tourism trade shows in the world. He is joined by JTB Chairman, John Lynch; Director of Tourism, Donovan White; Senior Advisor & Strategist, Ministry of Tourism, Delano Seiveright; and JTB Regional Director for the UK and Northern Europe, Elizabeth Fox.

The engagements in the UK end a global markets blitz led by Minister Bartlett and his senior officials which included Jamaica’s two largest source markets, the United States and Canada, and reaped massive successes in dramatically boosting airlift to the island and reassuring stakeholders on the COVID-related safety of the destination. The tourism minister also led engagements in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which in part will result in the opening of tourism and investment opportunities for Jamaica.

KINGSTON, Jamaica; October 31, 2021: As Jamaica seeks to accelerate tourism recovery with a focus on non-traditional markets Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has announced that plans are in train to boost air connectivity between the Middle East and the Caribbean, with Saudia Airlines set to expand flights to Jamaica by summer 2022.

This announcement follows Minister Bartlett’s recent travels to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to explore investment opportunities and boost tourism travel to Jamaica.

“The last two weeks have been very eventful for us in trying to carve out the new markets in the Middle East that will give us the connectivity to Africa, Asia and Asia Minor. We have had discussions in Dubai and in Riyadh. The discussions with Saudia Airlines are well advanced and we’ve had an understanding that there is an ambition for engagement by summer of 2022,” said the Tourism Minister.

“The details of that arrangement are being worked out with Saudia and another carrier that will make the possibility for connectivity easier and more seamless in the short run. So we are very excited about seeing the Middle Eastern gateway opening to Jamaica,” he added.

Minister Bartlett noted that the broader strategy is to have Jamaica become the hub for connectivity from the Middle East through to the Caribbean, Central America, South America and areas of North America. This will position Jamaica as being central to air connectivity between the East and West. “We are very confident that we will see results from this in short order as both airlines that we have spoken to have shown a strong appetite for the Caribbean and, more so, Latin America,” he said.

Saudia, formerly known as Saudi Arabian Airlines, is the flag carrier of Saudi Arabia. It is the third largest in the Middle East in terms of revenue, behind Emirates and Qatar Airways. It operates domestic and international flights to over 85 destinations in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. 

KINGSTON, Jamaica; October 29, 2021: Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett says the scheduled return of cruise ships across the island’s ports, beginning in mid-November, is a strong vote of confidence by major international stakeholders in the safety of and demand for brand Jamaica. It also signals the nearly full reopening of an industry that is crucial to Jamaica’s tourism recovery efforts and will aid greatly in bringing back much-needed jobs.

“Our tourism industry is quickly recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Arrivals figures are climbing, airlift for the winter season is looking good, and the winter cruise schedule will be very busy, with an uptick in November which will see multiple ships docking in Ocho Rios, Falmouth and Port Antonio,” said Bartlett.

These cruise lines include The World, a boutique cruise line for Port Antonio; the Carnival Sunrise, Norwegian Gem, MSC Meraviglia, AIDAdiva, among others, for Ocho Rios; and the Emerald Princess for the Port of Falmouth.

”Cruise is an integral part of our tourism product and an important driver in terms of visitor arrivals and expenditure. Thousands of Jamaicans depend on the cruise shipping industry,” he added.

Carnival Corporation, the world's largest cruise line, has committed to sending 110 or more cruises (200,000 cruise ship passengers), by its various brands, to the island between October 2021 and April 2022.

While Royal Caribbean International, the second largest cruise line in the world, will resume limited operations to Jamaica in November of this year. Also, cruise executives reiterated a strong desire to employ thousands of Jamaicans across a wide range of jobs and are awaiting government regulatory amendments to make it a reality.

With Carnival's 16-call itinerary over the next three months, MSC Meraviglia's return, and Royal Caribbean, Disney, and other cruise lines ready to begin sailing in the Caribbean, Jamaica could have cruises back on track by December, with nearly the whole fleet. By the end of the year, Bartlett expects just under 300,000 cruise passengers to visit Jamaica.

“We have been heavily marketing Port Royal to our international investors during our various marketing engagements overseas. During our meeting with TUI, they disclosed several planned visits and calls on the Port Royal Cruise Port, starting in January. We expect to have five calls from January through April 2022 in Port Royal.  We have also been in discussion with key partners in Dubai regarding plans to also invest in the tourism product in Port Royal,” said Bartlett.

This season, the Nieuw Statendam and Nieuw Amsterdam of Holland America Cruise Line, Crystal Cruises' Crystal Serenity and Crystal Symphony, and Seabourn Cruise Line's Seabourn Ovation, Royal Spirit of Adventure from Saga Cruises, are all scheduled to dock at Port Royal.

Cruise shipping will return to Montego Bay in January 2022.

KINGSTON, Jamaica; October 25, 2021: Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett has revealed that he has initiated discussions with top representatives of Emirates Airlines, with the aim of introducing a unique flight between Dubai and Jamaica early next year. The announcement comes as the Minister concluded marketing activities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) yesterday, with a crucial meeting with senior executives of Emirates Airlines at their Dubai Headquarters.

A major element of the wide-ranging discussion was the possibility of introducing a special service between Dubai and Jamaica, in celebration of Jamaica Day at Expo 2020, Dubai in February 2022. “We agreed to explore the feasibility of arranging this flight, details of which are to be worked out as soon as possible. There was also a productive discussion around tourism and airline recovery prospects and the positive V-shape pattern being experienced by Jamaica and Dubai,” said Bartlett.

He anticipates further discussions in the context of multi-destination strategies being formulated in the northern Caribbean to enable a more fulsome engagement of the Emirates and other partners in the Middle East. Emirates is the largest airline in the UAE, and the Middle East overall, operating over 3,600 flights per week.

While in the UAE, Minister Bartlett and his team also met with the country’s Tourism Authority to discuss collaboration on tourism investment from the region; Middle East tourism initiatives; and gateway access for North Africa and Asia and facilitation of airlift. There were also meetings with executives of EMAAR, arguably the largest and most prestigious hospitality and Real Estate/Community developer in the Middle East; DP World, one of the world’s largest port and marine logistics companies; DNATA, the single largest tour operator in the UAE and TRACT, a powerful tour operator in India.

“The round of marketing activities my team and I had with the key tourism and logistics partners in the UAE, were very fruitful.  This will undoubtedly result in the process of securing new investments, markets and gateways from the Middle East, Asia/Asia Minor and Africa to Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean,” Minister Bartlett explained.

From the UAE, Minister Bartlett will head to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he will speak at the 5th edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII). This year’s FII will include in-depth conversations about new global investment opportunities, analysis of industry trends, and unparalleled networking among CEOs, world leaders, and experts.

He will be joined by Senator, Hon. Aubyn Hill in his capacity as Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation (MEGJC), with responsibility for Water, Land, Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs), the Special Economic Zone Authority of Jamaica and special projects.

Minister Bartlett will return to the island on Saturday, November 6, 2021.

KINGSTON, Jamaica; October 22, 2021: Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett has revealed that TUI, the world’s largest tourism company, has added Port Royal to their January 2022 schedule. He indicated that the company has confirmed the resumption of their flights and cruises to Jamaica, with cruise activities scheduled to begin in January.  The company specifically outlined plans for homeporting in Montego Bay, and the inclusion of calls to Port Royal on their cruise schedule.

This announcement was made in Dubai recently, during a meeting involving Minister Bartlett, Director of Tourism, Donovan White and TUI Group Executives: David Burling - CEO Markets and Airlines; and Antonia Bouka - Group Head Government Relations & Public Policy-Destinations.

“Today TUI, one of our largest tour operators and partners in the distribution segment of the tourism industry, confirmed homeporting activities for cruise in Montego Bay. More importantly a number of planned visits and calls on the Port Royal Cruise Port, starting in January. We expect to have five calls from January through April 2022 in Port Royal,” said Bartlett.

During the discussions with TUI, the company executives advised that their data shows that the demand for cruise is high and they have managed to retain cancelled bookings.  They also shared that air capacity for this winter season will be 79,000, which is only 9% less than pre-COVID winter figures.

Bartlett assured the TUI executives that Jamaica remains a safe destination with very low instances of COVID-19 transmission within the resilient corridors, as well as a very robust tourism workers’ vaccination campaign.

“Our worker vaccination drive has been very effective in Jamaica, with many of our workers opting to become fully vaccinated. It is our hope that soon we will be celebrating 30-40% of Jamaica’s tourism workers being vaccinated as well as a significant increase in the vaccination of the rest of our population by January,” said Bartlett.

Minister Bartlett noted that he and his team, have also had discussions with other key partners in Dubai regarding plans to invest in the tourism product in Port Royal.

“I have had other important discussions in regards to Port Royal, which may see much more activity coming through for the remainder of the year. I have just concluded some discussions with DP World, which could result in significant improvements in the European traffic into the Caribbean, mostly in Jamaica, with Port Royal being a critical area of consideration,” said Bartlett.

“I am pleased with our discussions so far here in Dubai and I am expecting that Jamaica will see some significant investments from these engagements here,” he added.  

DP World is an Emirati multinational logistics company which is based in Dubai. The organization specialises in cargo logistics, maritime services, port terminal operations and free trade zones. It was formed in 2005 following the merger of Dubai Ports Authority and Dubai Ports International. DP World handles some 70 million containers that are brought in by around 70,000 vessels annually, which equates to roughly 10% of global container traffic accounted for by their 82 marine and inland terminals present in over 40 countries. Up until 2016, DP World was primarily a global ports operator, and since then it has acquired other companies up and down the value chain.

KINGSTON, Jamaica; October 22, 2021: Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, recently concluded a series of important cruise investment meetings with DP World, a major multinational logistics company based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

“I am very happy to announce that our meetings with one of the world’s largest port and marine logistics companies, DP World, have been very successful. During three consecutive days of meetings, we have had serious discussions about investments in the Port Royal Cruise Port and the possibility of homeporting.  We also discussed the development of a logistics hub, a Vernamfield multi-modal transport and aerotropolis, as well as other infrastructural investments,” said Bartlett.

DP World Chairman, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, through his emissary, Executive Vice President of DP World, Mohammed Al Maullem, expressed interest in Jamaica and conveyed greetings to Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness.

Bartlett and executives of DP World are to continue these discussions in the near future with the Port Authority of Jamaica and the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation.

DP World specialises in cargo logistics, maritime services, port terminal operations and free trade zones. It was formed in 2005 following the merger of Dubai Ports Authority and Dubai Ports International. DP World handles some 70 million containers that are brought in by around 70,000 vessels annually, which equates to roughly 10% of global container traffic accounted for by their 82 marine and inland terminals present in over 40 countries. Up until 2016, DP World was primarily a global ports operator, and since then it has acquired other companies up and down the value chain.

While in the UAE, Minister Bartlett and his team will also meet with representatives of the country’s Tourism Authority to discuss collaboration on tourism investment from the region; Middle East tourism initiatives; and gateway access for North Africa and Asia and facilitation of airlift. There will also be meetings with executives of DNATA Tours, the single largest tour operator in the UAE; members of the Jamaican Diaspora in the UAE; and three major Airlines in the Middle East – Emirates, Ethiad and Qatar.

From the UAE, Minister Bartlett will head to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he will speak at the 5th Anniversary of the Future Investment Initiative (FII). This year’s FII will include in-depth conversations about new global investment opportunities, analysis of industry trends, and unparalleled networking among CEOs, world leaders, and experts. He will be joined by Senator, Hon. Aubyn Hill in his capacity as Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation (MEGJC), with responsibility for Water, Land, Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs), the Special Economic Zone Authority of Jamaica and special projects.

Minister Bartlett will return to the island on Saturday, November 6, 2021.