North American tourist arrivals stay strong
published: Friday | August 20, 2004

By Andrew Green, Staff Reporter

TOURIST ARRIVALS from Canada are growing substantially faster than from the United States, according to Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) data.

During June, the Canadian market increased by 21 per cent, with a total of 5,957 stopovers compared to 4,917 in June 2003. The leading province, Ontario, increased by 22 per cent, and the second most important visitor-producing province, Quebec, increased by 25 per cent. For the other provinces, Alberta and Manitoba grew by 21 per cent and 10 per cent respectively, while British Columbia declined by four per cent.

Cumulatively, the Canadian market increased by 13 per cent in the January to June period, with a total of 58,539 stopovers compared to 52,004 in 2003. The main provinces Ontario and Quebec recorded increases of 10 per cent and 12 per cent respectively. The other notable increases were Alberta up 69 per cent, Nova Scotia up 23 per cent, British Columbia up 21 per cent and New Brunswick up 23 per cent.

Stopover arrivals from the United States market increased by 7 per cent in June with a total of 101,168 visitors, compared to the 94,554 visitors who came in June 2003. All US market regions recorded increases, according to the JTB data. The Northeast was up 12 per cent, the Midwest by less than 1 per cent, the South up four per cent and the West up 13 per cent. For the January to June period the US market increased by eight per cent. Total visitors from this market was 535,000, compared to 493,355 for the corresponding period in 2003. The Northeast increased by 13 per cent, the Midwest by six per cent, the South by three per cent and the West increased by 12 per cent.

STOPOVER ARRIVALS

Overall stopover arrivals in June 2004 were 133,393, an increase of 9.3 per cent over the 122,071 recorded for June 2003. Cumulatively, stopovers for the January to June period increased by 9.4 per cent with 742,338 compared to 678,315 in 2003.

This performance helped push Jamaica into a leading position in terms of the overall expansion in Caribbean tourism. The island's 9.5 per cent growth in the January to May period gave it the sixth largest increase in stopover arrivals within the region, according to Caribbean Tourism Organisation data.