Antigua & Barbuda is expected to see a 5 per cent increase in tourist arrivals over the next year.
Director of Tourism in the US Derede Samuel-Whitlock said this would be aided by the introduction of additional flights from JFK to VC Bird International by Caribbean Airlines, which began the service yesterday.
“Looking at what we’ve gained with Caribbean Airlines, our projections for 2011, we are actually going to end up at least five points ahead of what we had in 2010,” the tourism director said. “We are beginning to see the US market turn around and we are anticipating an increase in travel demand based on all the economic indicators.
“For this holiday season and for the winter season we expect that all of that latent demands that people have been holding off and waiting to plan their dream vacation, a lot of it will happen in 2011.”
Samuel-Whitlock added that having Caribbean Airlines available to add to seat capacity really boosts the ability to go after these markets and even maintain and grow market share out of the United States.
In defending her estimation, Samuel-Whitlock said that her office routinely does detailed counts of passengers travelling between both destinations to gauge the size of the market and the island’s capacity.
“We’ve steadily increased our seat counts over the past three or four years adding both Delta flights and American Airlines,” she said. “So, if you look at where we are capacity-wise from 2005 to 2006 to where we are today, you would see a marked increase of about 20 per cent out of the United States.”
However, since Delta Airlines merged with Northwest Airlines, the airline has significantly cut flights throughout the region including Antigua & Barbuda, where in some instances, flights have been cut from four to two or one per week.
She noted that although this might not be a temporary fix, as airline negotiations can take a while, Caribbean Airlines would now fill that void as the country continues to keep abreast of airline-related developments.
The new service is expected to bring 350 additional visitors every week.
Now come on jet Blue!
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Do something about the air fares and then you will see an increase. The cost of a ticket is almost the cost of a vacation in Florida. Last time I checked it was 800 dollars from Antigua to the US. Now you know why “Staycations” has become the new buzz word.
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