Talking about travel is fine, but nothing beats the sights, sounds, and taste of the real thing. With this in mind, the Jamaican Tourist Board pulled out one of its big guns recently, arranging for an authentic Jamaican meal to be delivered to a few lucky travel writers to help add new flavour to the latest virtual island update from tourism director Donovan White.

And while dining on jerk chicken, rice and beans, mac pie, shrimp curry, and, of course, a Jamaican patty at home (shameless shout-out to the Patois Toronto for the excellent grub!) lacked the same vibe as doing so at Scotchies in Ocho Rios or Montego Bay, the unexpected treat made the point that an expected return to travel seems to at least be in the oven.

It certainly has been well documented by the JTB, and White himself, how Jamaican tourism has been affected by the pandemic – like everyone else, significantly! – and also the many diligent and creative efforts made on island to help maintain some semblance of the island’s tourism lifeblood while still adhering to strict health and safety protocols for both visitors and residents.

However, with vaccines rolling out, visions of the future are gaining steam, and not just when, but how.

As for the former, White admits that future bookings for are still “soft” due to pandemic fears and restrictions. For Canadians, of course, the issue is largely a moot point until at least after a federal ban on flights to the Caribbean ends on April 30.

“Looking ahead even six months out, as of right now we are still relatively low (in Canadian bookings),” White acknowledges. “We’re still less than 10 percent of room nights booked compared to 2019 at the same time, so it’s extremely soft.”

But he adds, “We’ve been told by our Canadian partners that there is a level of anxiousness to be able to get out and travel – but the typical response of an extremely conservative Canadian marketplace is that they are waiting on the announcements of permission to travel before they identify where they want to travel to. But we remain confident that we will have our fair share of the Canadian marketplace once flights resume.”

As for how, White promises Jamaica will be ready to accommodate an expected explosion of pent-up demand to come when travellers get the green light to go.

And the tourism director is adamant that the sentiment is more than just lip service to tourism’s new “ready when you are” mantra.

“What I will say is this,” he told Travel Industry Today: “The destination and our partners have worked tirelessly at great cost to prepare themselves to function normally in a post-COVID era. They have invested heavily at a time when revenues are down in ensuring that they have met all aspects of protocols that they have provided, and in training and strategy for their staff – even those staff that are not back at work have been included. So, in the event that they have to ramp up rapidly, they are in a position of readiness to do that.”

He points to last December and January, when tourism arrivals jumped substantially over previous months, as an indicator that the industry in Jamaica could do the job.

“Hoteliers and attractions were able to ramp up relatively quickly to be able to facilitate the demand that was presented to them. And we anticipate that if there is an avalanche of the release of pent-up demand in the coming months, that Jamaica is ready to ramp its services up – from our airports to our transportation, to our accommodation sector, to our restaurants, to all aspects of the destination.”

Cruising is another “interesting” component of Jamaica’s recovery campaign, with White revealing to Travel Industry Today that the country is currently in discussions with “a number of cruise lines” about the concept of homeporting on the island later in the year.

“We will have more to say about that in coming weeks, but you can be assured that the conversations are indeed happening and that the necessary strategic frameworks that are necessary are in fact in place and being reshaped where necessary, but definitely carved in readiness to receive those travellers.”

In the meantime, Jamaica continues to roll out its comprehensive country-wide Jamaica Cares traveller confidence program, with the insurance aspect of the policy still under development but set to come to market “fairly soon.”

Also, as of March 10, the window for current visitors to take and provide a negative PCR test up arrival was shortened to three days.

In future, Jamaica may consider using vaccine passports as a standard for entry, but the issue is still being considered at the ministerial level, says White, adding, “There will be a lot to say about that as those conversations become clearer.”

But in the meantime, the launch of a national vaccination campaign – “getting as many Jamaicans vaccinated as possible” – also feeds into a tourism perspective, says White, by giving visitors to Jamaica “added assurance… which will hopefully add to their own personal security of knowing that they are going to a destination that has taken COVID very seriously and provides a great environment for vacations to have a great vacation.”

It’s all part of a process to ensure that travellers have an experience, he adds, that is “safe and secure and seamless as we re-imagine and reset tourism in the post COVID era.”