The Caribbean regional travel landscape has taken a major step forward with the launch of LIAT’s first-ever direct air service connecting Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, and Montego Bay, Jamaica — a development that has earned enthusiastic praise from the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority as a transformative boost to regional connectivity and collective tourism growth.
At launch ceremonies marking the new route’s debut, Shermain Jeremy, director of Caribbean and Latin America markets for the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority, emphasized that the service delivers widespread benefits across the entire Caribbean bloc, rather than delivering isolated gains to just the two endpoint destinations.
“This route is not Guadeloupe’s gain or Jamaica’s gain—it is the region’s gain,” Jeremy stated explicitly during her remarks.
She went on to explain that the new fixed-route service redefines Guadeloupe’s role in the Caribbean travel ecosystem, establishing the island as a central gateway for multi-destination Caribbean itineraries. By cutting down on connection times and travel complexity, the new link makes it far simpler for international and regional visitors to build extended trips that include multiple island nations, among them Antigua and Barbuda.
Jeremy also used the occasion to outline a shared vision for the future of Caribbean tourism, arguing that long-term, sustainable growth for the region depends on cross-destination collaboration rather than cutthroat competition for the same visitor base.
“That is the future of Caribbean tourism: not competing for the same visitor, but sharing them,” she added.
In closing, the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority extended formal congratulations to LIAT and all of its industry partners on successfully expanding regional air connectivity, a move that lowers barriers to entry for travelers looking to explore the diverse array of destinations that make up the Caribbean. Industry observers note that stronger air links across the region are expected to drive longer average visitor stays, higher collective tourism spending, and more resilient revenue streams for smaller island nations that rely on travel as a core economic pillar.