Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

ON THE HEELS of a first-quarter 7.6 per cent decline in passenger traffic at the island's tourism gateway, Sangster International Airport, Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett has announced the commencement of two new charters from South America.

The news comes at a time when MBJ Airports Limited, operator of Sangster International, is reporting an increase of 4.8 per cent in charter flights over 2008.

The tourism minister said the two Latin tour operators leading the charge are VIAMERICA and MAXITravel. VIAMERICA will provide charters to Jamaica via Lima, Peru, and MAXITravel will offer service out of Ecuador.

"VIAMERICA will begin its charter operations to MBJ (Montego Bay) on June 23, to run through to January 1, 2010, with a total of 33 rotations," Bartlett told The Sunday Gleaner during a special meeting with members of the newspaper's editorial team at The Gleaner Company's North Street offices in Kingston.

Advantage of experience

With more than 36 years of experience in the domestic and international tourism industry, VIAMERICA has offices in Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca, the three major markets in Ecuador. "An extensive network of users throughout the world can access VIAMERICA's products and services through its website day and night year-round," the tourism minister disclosed.

In MAXITravel's case, they will begin operating a weekly flight from July 9 to August 13, for a total of 13 rotations, "And they have planned an aggressive promotion campaign to support their Jamaica charter service."

MAXITravel will operate an additional two rotations (October 27 to November 4). Each of these flights is expected to deliver 120 passengers, from a total of 1,800 passengers for 2009.

Come 2010, the flights are scheduled to run January to April, July to August, and October to November, with anticipated passenger numbers of 20,880.

In 2008, there were 16,122 stopover visitors from Latin America, 32.5 per cent above 2007. But in the first three months of this year, arrivals from that region were down 10.1 per cent.

"Our problem has been airlift, which has been very weak because of a constraint in marketing efforts," argued the tourism minister, crediting the return of Jamaica Vacations for creating new opportunities for intervention.

"We have put new focus on South America, driving our efforts through our agent, Alex Page, and we have been working more closely with a number of new travel agents and tour operators and have opened dialogue with the leading airlines."

Immense potential

According to Bartlett, there is immense potential in the 200 million-strong market - a growing demographic that fits into the travel profile. "Outbound traffic into the Caribbean and the rest of the region is well over 20 million," he stated.

At the moment, the majority of the business coming out of Latin America goes to the Spanish chain of hotels because of the close relationship they have built over the years. However, the tourism minister said all of the local resort sectors would be the target during the marketing efforts.

"This is timely, given the downturn in the world economy, and only serves to fence the destination against the ravages of the recession," Bartlett concluded.

Janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com