On Wednesday, the Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, stated that Jamaica aims to receive half a million Canadian visitors by 2025.
Related:
New Strain Of Dengue In Jamaica
The official described the goal as ambitious, but achievable, while highlighting the launch of an initiative to get more air transport from the North American country.
"We are going to talk to Air Canada, WestJet, Canada Jetlines, our new partners and also others to strengthen the airlift out of Canada," he said as quoted by the Jamaica Observer newspaper.
The overall goal for the nation, he noted, is to welcome five million visitors and earn five billion dollars in tourism revenue by 2025.
Canada, he added, is our third largest market, and we are just over the 300,000 mark, which means we are approaching where we were in 2010, when we had 400,000 visitors from that origin.
The projections, he assured, are based on data and there is evidence that the Canadian market is ready to reach half a million visitors in the next two years.
In addition, the tourism minister stressed that the growth of Canadian vacationers would play a strategic role in Jamaica's efforts to attract Asian visitors, including those from India and China.