Rashaed Esson

Staff Writer

#Jamaica, August 29, 2023 – Jamaica sores above other countries in the region being voted as the Leading Destination at the World Travel Awards (WTA) Caribbean and The Americas gala ceremony.

The ceremony was held on Saturday August 26th, 2023 at Sandals Grand St. Lucian, marking the opening of the WTA’s landmark 30th anniversary Grand Tour 2023 – a global search for the finest travel and tourism organizations.

The island also claimed other titles as the Caribbean’s Leading Cruise Destination, Caribbean’s Leading Cruise Port, Caribbean’s Leading Tourist Board and the Caribbean’s Leading Airport.

The Leading Cruise Port award was for Falmouth, one of Jamaica’s largest piers and the port for Royal Caribbean, which Donovan White, Director of the Jamaica Tourist Board said do a lot for the country given the connections they create for onshore excursions.

Additionally, it was pointed out by White that the awards for Leading Cruise Destination and Leading Cruise Port are encouraging amid challenges that need overcoming in the cruise sector which he described as slowly recovering since the pandemic.

Considering this, he informed them that they are working with partners to get back to back to normal.

“The itineraries in the northern Caribbean have had troubles over the last two years since COVID and we continue to work with them to seam those out so that we get back to regular porting.”

There is still much to do for the improvement of the country despite the awards as expressed by White, as reported by Loop News, to which he spoke.

“We are working. You hear Minister Edmund Bartlett speak all the time about making the Jamaica Tourist economy and to do that we have to do a lot more.”

He continued to highlight some of the work needed.

He said, “we have to transition our road networks into full highway systems, we have to complete the 15,000 rooms in seven years that we promised,” adding, “we have to continue to bring new investment into open new tourist attractions, we have to get the small and medium size businesses to understand what linkages are, understand what role they need to play in driving the tourism economy of Jamaica, because at the end of the day, it is a team game and Jamaica has to work as a team not only to ensure that we win these awards, but we continue to grow.”

Though the country won many awards, White expressed that the ones that are most heartfelt are the Leading Tourist Board of the Caribbean and the Leading Caribbean Destination, highlighting that the island has set a standard to which all tourist boards are compared, adding that it is important for the island to keep that standard high.

“For Jamaica to own those awards, the tourist board award we have won for 17 consecutive years. It tells me that we have set a standard by which all tourist boards are measured, so we can’t afford to drop that standard, we live by that standard. It’s for us to lose it, and I don’t see the team wanting to lose that anytime soon. It is really dedicated to the hard work of the team of the JTB to continually win that award,” he maintained.

Jamaica won a list of other awards such as:

• Caribbean’s Leading Adventure Tourist Attraction: Dunn’s River Falls and Parks
• Caribbean’s Leading Airport Lounge: Club MoBay at Sangster Airport
• Caribbean’s Leading Boutique Resort: Golden Eye
• Caribbean’s Leading Destination Management Company: GO Jamaica Travel
• Caribbean’s Leading Home Port: Port of Montego Bay
• Caribbean’s Leading Hotel: Half Moon Jamaica
• Caribbean’s Leading Hotel Residences: The Tryall Club
• Caribbean’s Leading Independent Car Rental Company: Island Car Rentals
• Caribbean’s Leading Luxury All Suite Resort: Jamaica Inn
• Caribbean’s Leading Luxury All Inclusive Resort: Sandals Dunn’s River
• Caribbean’s Leading Luxury All Inclusive Villa: Fleming’s Villa @ Golden Eye
• Caribbean’s Leading Meetings and Conference Centre: Montego Bay Convention Centre
• Caribbean’s Leading New Resort: Sandals Dunn’s River
• Caribbean’s Leading Tour Operator: Go Jamaica Travel
• Caribbean’s Leading Travel Agency: Go Jamaica Travel

Other Caribbean countries won awards including The Bahamas with the Caribbean’s Leading Luxury Island 2023 award; The Turks and Caicos with the Caribbean’s Most Romantic Destination 2023 award; and St. Lucia with the Caribbean’s Leading Nature Destination 2023 award.

To see all the other awards given see: https://www.worldtravelawards.com/winners/2023/caribbean