McNeill
Daviot Kelly, Staff Reporter
STATE MINISTER for Industry and Tourism, Senator Wykeham McNeill, is upbeat about Jamaica's tourism prospects this year.
Speaking at the launch of British Airways' (BA) new innovations at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel on Wednesday night, Senator McNeill said his ministry expected an eight per cent growth in airline arrivals, which would translate into 1.5 million persons. He also estimated that another 1.1 million tourists would arrive via cruise ships, resulting in approximately 2.6 million visitors.
"We (the ministry) are also seeing tremendous investment in, and for the industry. In the private sector, we see thousands of new hotel rooms coming on stream as well as many new attractions," reported Senator McNeill.
DIVERSE AND EXCITING DESTINATION
"These will help to make Jamaica a more diverse and exciting destination and far more competitive as we go forward," he added.
Senator McNeill argued that despite the significant losses suffered by the global airline industry since 2001, profitable airlines were able to make a combined profit of $4 billion last year. For Jamaica, he noted that arrivals from Continental Europe and the United Kingdom were up by 10.7 per cent last year, with a projected increase of 10.8 per cent this year.
"We have set ourselves ambitious but achievable growth targets ... including a goal of 2.2 million stopover visitors by the end of this decade," he said.
The new BA innovations are its Club World Flat Bed and a new travel class, the World Traveller Plus. Diane Corrie, BA's commercial manager North Caribbean, said at Wednesday's launch that her company was the first to offer a seat that converts into a fully flat bed for business travellers.
The World Traveller Plus is a new class tailored for business and leisure travellers. The new class provides its passengers with more space and privacy than in the existing World Traveller class, including greater legroom and in-seat power, which enables passengers to work, for example, with laptop computers.
These new innovations have already been implemented on other BA routes, with the Kingston to London route being among the latest.
