KINGSTON, Jamaica; November 12, 2021: Less than a month after topping the World Travel Awards Caribbean & North America 2021 Winners Day in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Jamaica scored big again on Thursday, November 11, at the 2021 Travvy Awards in Miami, Florida.

Jamaica won gold in the categories of the Caribbean's Best Destination, Best Culinary Destination, Best Tourism Board, and Best Travel Agent Academy Program. Jamaica also received Silver awards for best Caribbean Wedding Destination and Best Caribbean Honeymoon Destination.

Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett expressed his gratitude for Travvy’s recognition of the destination, sharing that "it is a huge honour to be recognized by this prestigious group of industry professionals."

"Jamaica accepts these awards with sincere gratitude and humility. I must thank the hardworking team within the Ministry of Tourism, the Jamaica Tourist Board, our other public bodies, as well as our stakeholders who have worked tirelessly to promote brand Jamaica and continuously improve our tourism offerings. It is an especially wonderful feeling to be recognised during a pandemic, which has tremendously impacted our tourism industry," he added. 

At the awards ceremony, Chairman, of the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), John Lynch; Delano Seiveright, Senior Advisor and Strategist, Ministry of Tourism, and executives from the JTB –  Christopher Wright, Business Development Manager; Francine Carter Henry, Manager, Tour Operators and Airlines; and Phillip Rose, Regional Director, Northeast USA, represented Jamaica.

Last year, travel agent readers of Agent@Home magazine and TravelPulse.com cast over 130,000 votes in over 140 categories to determine this year's winners. 

The annual Travvy Awards dubbed the "Academy Awards of the Travel Industry" was held at the Miami Beach Convention Center to honour travel firms, travel products, travel agencies, and destinations for their remarkable success.

KINGSTON, Jamaica; November 12, 2021: Tourism Minister Hon Edmund Bartlett is scheduled to speak later today at the American Caribbean Maritime Foundation's Anchor Awards, taking place at the Fort Lauderdale Yacht Club in Florida.

The event will be chaired by Mike Maura, CEO of the Nassau Cruise Port Ltd, and will honour Mr. Harriat Maragh, CEO, Lannaman & Morris (Shipping), Ltd. (posthumous); and Ms. Alyse Lisk, Senior Vice President of Technology and Operational Excellence, TOTE Maritime.

“I am very pleased to be attending and delivering remarks at the Anchor Awards. It is especially heartening to share my gratitude to the family of our very own Harry Maragh, who was a pillar in Jamaica’s tourism and shipping industries. His contribution was truly invaluable and he was indeed a remarkable human being,” said Bartlett.

“I am also looking forward to congratulating Ms Alyse Lisk, who is also being honoured this evening for her contribution to the maritime industry, as well as the Foundation for all the important work they do to assist Caribbean students,” added Bartlett.

The Anchor Awards will be attended by several Government officials and senior executives of major cruise and cargo liners. Government officials expected to attend include: Bahamian Prime Minister the Most Hon. Philip Davis; Deputy Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Hon Chester Cooper; Minister of Tourism & Investment for Antigua & Barbuda, Hon. Charles Fernandez,

Also expected to attend are: Rick Sasso, CEO of MSC Cruises; Michael Bayley, CEO of Royal Caribbean International; and Rick Murrell, CEO of Saltchuk (parent company of Tropical Shipping).

The American Caribbean Maritime Foundation is a non-profit organization based in New York, the U.S., supporting Caribbean students studying maritime. The Foundation exists to specifically support the work of the Caribbean Maritime University (Jamaica), the University of Trinidad and Tobago, and LJM Maritime Academy (Bahamas).

It provides scholarships to Caribbean nationals who are aspiring seafarers to study maritime-related coursework and degrees; funds the building of classrooms; provides laptops to support remote study.

The Foundation has also awarded 61 scholarships and grants to students from Jamaica, The Bahamas, Trinidad, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Lucia.

KINGSTON, Jamaica; November 09, 2021:  Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett extends sincere condolences to the relatives and friends of Melody Haughton-Adams, President of the All-Island Craft Traders and Producers Association, who passed away earlier today following an illness.

“Melody has been a significant figure in the tourism industry over the years and has always been very passionate about developing the craft industry. She was an outstanding human being who will truly be missed by all who were privileged enough to know her. On behalf of the Ministry of Tourism and all its public bodies, I, therefore, offer my condolences to her family and friends during this challenging time,” said Minister Bartlett.

Haughton has been the President of the All-Island Craft Traders and Producers Association for over twenty years and served as the President of the Harbour Street Craft Market in Montego Bay for decades.

“Melody’s passion for the craft industry, and by extension tourism, is truly unmatched and our industry will not be the same without her. May her soul be at peace with our Heavenly Father,” said Minister Bartlett.

KINGSTON, Jamaica; November 08, 2021: Luxury and lifestyle travel magazine Condé Nast Traveller's has included Kingston, Jamaica, as a must-see destination in 2022 for travellers interested in cultural tourism. Destinations on the list, divided into categories to suit all travel appetites, such as 'best for foodies' and 'best for adventure junkies', were selected based on their expected impact on the year ahead in the travel and tourism industries. 

Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett welcomed this recognition as his Ministry is focused on promoting City Tourism in the country's capital.

"Kingston is a beautiful destination, and I am extremely pleased it is getting the recognition it deserves by such an acclaimed publication. Kingston is a UNESCO-designated Creative City, which was selected because it has much to offer, primarily in areas of art, culture, gastronomy, and eco-tourism," said Bartlett.

"I am pleased to share that Kingston will also see nearly 500 new hotel rooms opening before 2023. Therefore, options for accommodation for our potential visitors will expand significantly in the months to come," he added.

In recognizing the destination, Condé Nast Traveller shared that Kingston is “claiming a new identity as a spirited cultural hub overflowing with multicultural restaurants, world-class galleries, and carnivals to rival the spectacles of Rio.”

They encouraged visitors to venture outside of Kingston to places such as Runaway Bay and Makka beach for surfing. They also recommended School of Vision, which was described as an “active commune and guest house celebrating Rastafarian culture to enjoy Nyahbinghi music, dancing, and drumming.”

The list for “Best for Culture Lovers” also included Oslo, Norway; New Orleans; Egypt; and Menorca.

Condé Nast Traveller is a luxury and lifestyle travel magazine published by Condé Nast. The magazine has won 25 National Magazine Awards.

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.