The United States' economy is in financial turmoil, but despite the gloomy outlook, tourism officials in Jamaica are optimistic that the winter tourist season will boom.

North American tourists are expected to come to the island, while United Kingdom (UK) markets are also seriously being targeted.

With the loss of the Air Jamaica London slots and the absence of a British Airways London to Montego Bay route, getting UK leisure tourists into the resort areas has proven challenging.

Familiarisation tour

That's why the Jamaica Tourist Board's (JTB) London office, in collaboration with SuperClubs Breezes Runaway Bay Resort and Golf Club and British Airways, brought 45 travel agents to St Ann for three nights on a familiarisation tour.

British Airways provided the seats from London, while Breezes Runaway Bay accommodated the agents for the weekend of November 21-24.

In rationalising the trip to Jamaica, Torrance Lewis, UK district manager in the JTB London office said that British Airways had been servicing the Kingston route for many decades, but that the JTB was now working with the airline on getting more leisure business.

He said Ocho Rios was the logical place to showcase because the air connection from Kingston to Ocho Rios would be an acceptable transfer time.

Viable alternative

"So ,what we are saying to these travel agents is, if you have clients who want to holiday in Ocho Rios and can't get them on a preferred flight into Montego Bay, Kingston is a very viable alternative gateway to Jamaica. They can combine a few nights in Kingston, experience the capital of Jamaica, the vibrancy of it and then move on," explained Lewis.

UK tour operators were asked to nominate travel agents to make the trip and after several months, they arrived in the island on November 21.

After a two-hour coach ride from The Norman Manley International Airport, they were accommodated at the sprawling SuperClubs Breezes Runaway Bay property, which pulled out all the stops to show the agents a good time.

It was a weekend of food, frolicking and fun at the super-inclusive resort called Jamaica Jamboree 2008, under the theme, 'Once you go, you know'.

However, the trip to Jamaica was only one strategy among several to get UK tourists to visit the north coast from Kingston.

More than mobay

"A lot of the travel agents will have thought that if you are selling people a holiday to Jamaica the airport is in Montego Bay, and if you can't get a seat to Montego Bay there is no holiday to be sold," said Lewis.

"More than half of our capacity out of London to Jamaica come to Kingston. So, we have not only brought this group out, we have worked with our public relations agency and come up with a sales video, which will be distributed to travel agents across the UK, focussing on Jamaica with Kingston as a gateway to Jamaica," he added.