THE MONTHLY GLEANER | APRIL 17 - MAY 17, 2025 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | NEWS 4 Neil Armstrong/Gleaner Writer TORONTO: JAMAICA’S DIRECTOR of tourism, Donovan White, says the Jamaica Tourist Board owes a great deal of its success to the ever-expanding Canadian market. Speaking on Monday at a cocktail reception to celebrate the JTB’s 70th anniversary at the Toronto Region Board of Trade, White thanked partners at the event for their support and belief in the national tourism agency. He said the relationship between Jamaica and Canada holds a special significance in Jamaica’s tourism history. The director of tourism said Canadian visitors have been the most loyal travellers to Jamaica and the country is proud of the 42 per cent rate of return visitors to Jamaica. “That first flight from Toronto to Montego Bay decades ago has evolved into numerous daily connections bringing hundreds of thousands of Canadian visitors to our island every year. In fact, Canada’s importance to Jamaica’s tourism cannot be overstated. In 2024, we welcomed some almost 400,000 Canadian stopover visitors which was 6.2 per cent more than the year before, and 48 per cent more than 2022.” Ontario continues to be their largest Canadian market with over 277,000 visitors every year while Quebec showed outstanding growth of 23 per cent in the past year, bring nearly 60,000 visitors to Jamaica. White said for the past five years, the JTB had been trumpeting to its partners to “walk with us to Quebec City” and one decided to work alongside it to open Quebec City next winter. “When the JTB began in 1955, Jamaica welcomed fewer than 100,000 visitors that year. Today, I’m proud to share that we’ve achieved record-breaking numbers. We now welcome 4.3 million visitors to Jamaica.” He that number of visitors generate US$4.3 billion in earnings for the country. “Tourism is in fact our number-one industry; it is our highest employer of people in Jamaica outside of the government. We are some 26½ per cent of the Jamaican working population in tourism and that $4.3 billion in earnings is our number-one earning. We surpassed remittance about two years ago.” White said the significance and importance of what the JTB does to the well-being of Jamaica and Jamaicans at home is significantly important. Tourism has been the fastest-growing industry in Jamaica for the past three years, he said, noting that this success would have been impossible without the dedicated professionals who have shaped the JTB through the years, from John Pringle, Jamaica’s first director of tourism, to John Lynch, chairman of the JTB, who was also a director of tourism. He acknowledged the visionary leadership of Edmund Bartlett, minister of tourism, and all the previous ministers “whose innovation and approaches have positioned Jamaica at the forefront of global resilience”. White also expressed gratitude to his 197-Jamaica Tourist Board team and the additional agencies and representatives in countries worldwide. “Looking ahead I am excited to see Jamaica’s connectivity with Canada expand reaching our target of 500,000”, which White said they want to achieve by the end of winter 2027. He said the next chapter of the Jamaica tourism history will focus on sustainability, innovation and inclusivity. “We are developing new products that respond to the evolving traveller’s preference, investing in our tourism workers, and ensuring that tourism benefits extend right across our communities in Jamaica.” Angella Bennett, regional director at JTB Canada, said for seven decades the agency had been inviting the world “to feel the rhythm of our beautiful island home”. She thanked the JTB’s tourism partners for championing Jamaica across Canada and noted that the presence of hoteliers, stakeholders and tour operators, airline partners and travel agents, trade media and diaspora media, diaspora ambassadors and friends spoke volumes about the strong bonds that they have forged together. “You are more than a business associate to us, you are our extended family,” Bennett said, noting that in 1955 when the JTB was officially established, few could have imagined the journey ahead from welcoming just over 100,000 visitors annually in the 1950s to now hosting millions of arrivals per year. Describing that evolution as remarkable, she said Canada has always held a special place in that journey “consistently ranking among Jamaica’s top-three source markets and we are moving up the ladder”. Referencing a book titled, The 1956 Report on Jamaica, that has a date of being received by the JTB Toronto on December 30, 1957, Kurt Davis, Jamaica’s consul general at Toronto who was also speaking on behalf of Marsha Coore Lobban, Jamaica’s high commissioner to Canada, said it was a comprehensive encyclopedia of information on Jamaican history. He shared two sections pertinent to the event: one about the Beach Control Authority established in 1955 which “refused an application for the use of Dunn’s River Beach as a private hotel beach”. The other indicated that the JTB had completed its first year of work and was reappointed under the chairmanship of Abe Issa and was “very active in its vigorous promotion campaign”. He said the report noted the opening of the fourth office in North America, in Chicago, which was joining New York, Miami and Toronto. Michael Anthony Cuffe was the master of ceremonies, Pastor Judith James opened the event with prayer, and multiple award-winning reggae artiste Steele and the Hardcore Band provided the entertainment. Jamaica Tourist Board celebrates its 70th anniversary in style It was a very happy group that joined in for the cutting of a specially prepared cake for the event to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Jamaica Tourist Board in Canada. From left; Judy Nash, administration assistant, Sedrecia Francis, business development manager, Western Canada, Donovan White, director of Tourism, Angella Bennett, regional director Canada, Jackie Marshall, Racquel Queensborough, business development manager, Dan Hamilton, district sales manager, and Indira Tarachandra, senior assistant to the regional director. CONTRIBUTED Justice Donald McLeod and Pamela Appelt greet each other at the cocktail reception to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Jamaica Tourist Board. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE JTB. Will Mr. Damian Baker of a St. Elizabeth, Jamaica address or anyone knowing his whereabouts, kindly contact the Child Protection & Family Services Agency, 10 Hanover Street, Spanish Town, St. Catherine, Jamaica at 876-301-4983. N O T I C E NOTICE Will anyone knowing the whereabouts of SACHEKA ROBERT McKENZIE, daughter of ROBERT MARK ANTHONY MCKENZIE, whose last known address in Jamaica was 7 Coopers Hill Road, Montego Bay, St. James but more recently in the United States of America as 3123 S.W 176 Terrace, Miramar, Florida 33029, U.S.A kindly contact Audrey D. Johnson, Attorney-at-Law of 5 North Avenue, Swallowfield, Kingston 5, Telephone #876-895-0781, E-mail: adjlawO@gmail.com.
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