Fewer plane seats, US elections take toll on Jamaica’s tourism

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A group of visitors on a recent tour of Catadupa, St James.

MONTEGO BAY, St James — Stakeholders in the tourism sector have attributed a dip in stopover arrivals to the unavailability of airline seats, in addition to fallout from Hurricane Beryl, the usual September slowdown this time of year, and the presidential race in one of its major markets.

They have indicated, however, that forward bookings indicate that things will soon be back on track.

“We have an airline problem, we had [Hurricane] Beryl, which caused a serious disruption; the travel advisory didn’t help, this is the US election year [and] as it gets closer to the elections, traditionally people don’t travel,” president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) Robin Russell told the Jamaica Observer on Monday.

According to tourism players, Boeing and Airbus — manufacturers of large aircraft — have reportedly not been able to deliver new planes since the COVID-19 pandemic and this has had an impact.

Russell explained that while the number of flights has not decreased, there are fewer seats because smaller aircraft are being used.

“It is just smaller planes and they have increased rates and it kind of caused a little slowdown in what we call growth. But when you look at it, we are still on par with what 2023 did,” he said.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, who agreed with the JHTA president’s comments about the seats, also pointed out that September is usually slow; he appeared to be hopeful that the month would end on a better note.

“September is usually your bad month, but we still not finished in September. It is slow because we have less seats. The planes are coming in full but we just don’t have enough seats,” Bartlett said.

The minister added that he will be travelling to Brazil on Tuesday, a trip which forms part of the strategy to secure additional seats out of South America.

“We are continuing to ensure that we have flights from Brazil, in addition to the flights from Peru that will commence the first of December this year,” Bartlett stated.

“We are also having discussions with Avianca and Gull [airlines] so that we can have more flights coming in from South America to Jamaica to make up for the shortfall of seats until the supply is restored from the two big aircraft manufacturers, Boeing and Airbus,” he added.

The tourism minister also revealed plans to lead a team to India during the first week of November to stage a six-day road show “to commence serious work on the Indian market”.

Bartlett was confident that the destination will record more stopover arrivals than it did last year.

Russell shared his optimism, based on the anticipated numbers for winter.

“We are already seeing strong forward bookings. We are already in negotiations with airlines to try and increase airlift. So we are positive that it will be a good season,” the JHTA president said.

Last year, Jamaica welcomed more than four million visitors and earned US$4.2 million. The tourism minister said that figure has already been surpassed so far this year.

“For the first time, we are over two million visitors in eight and a half months. That is a big performance, notwithstanding the issue of less seats,” he said.

“We know the issues so we are marketing around it. We are not settling for the year to close less than last year. We are going to be picking up back. [In] October, November, December, everything will be back on track in terms of performance,” Bartlett promised.

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