Senior Advisor and Strategist in the Tourism Ministry, Delano Seiveright has welcomed the Canadian government’s decision to scrap all remaining Covid-19 travel restrictions.

The government of Canada has ended Covid-19 border restrictions, including mandatory vaccinations; random on-arrival testing, and has made the arrive–can app optional.

The policy changes will come into effect on Saturday.

Mr Seiveright said the move will serve as a boost for increased stopover visitors from the country, which has long been Jamaica’s second largest tourist source market.

He noted that minister Bartlett and the Jamaica tourist board will lead engagements with a swathe of travel partners in October.

According to Mr Seiveright, stopover arrival numbers from Canada is still far below pre-pandemic 2019 numbers, whilst the United States and United Kingdom numbers, in recent months have run ahead of 2019 numbers.