Jamaica Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett with CTO Secretary-General and CEO Dona Regis-Prosper at Caribbean Travel Marketplace in Antigua and Barbuda. Also pictured are Philip Rose, Deputy Director of Tourism (left), and Donovan White, Director of Tourism.
KINGSTON--Jamaica will host the second Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) Air Connectivity Summit in Kingston on February 23, 2027, as regional leaders continue efforts to strengthen airlift and improve connectivity across the Caribbean.
The announcement was made by Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett during the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association’s (CHTA) Caribbean Travel Marketplace in Antigua on Thursday.
Bartlett said the summit builds on the outcomes of the inaugural event held in Bermuda earlier this year, which brought together tourism ministers, airline executives, airport authorities and industry stakeholders to confront persistent challenges in regional aviation, including limited seat capacity, high taxes and fees, and gaps in long-haul and intra-regional services.
“The summit will provide strategic insight for regional planning,” Bartlett said. “Jamaica will use that as a means not only of bringing airline partners together, but also to engage in some cerebration – some thinking around the future of air connectivity in our region, which is so important.”
He noted that the timing aligns closely with the United Nations-designated Global Tourism Resilience Day on February 17, an initiative championed by Jamaica.
The first CTO Air Connectivity Summit was held on February 24, 2026, in Hamilton, Bermuda. That meeting focused on improving aviation capacity, reducing structural barriers, and strengthening cooperation between tourism and aviation sectors.
Rosa Harris, chair of the CTO Airlift Committee and director of tourism for the Cayman Islands, described air connectivity as “our oxygen” and “an economic lifeline” for the region.
“If we can’t get off the island, we can’t develop business, we can’t feed our people,” Harris said, underscoring the urgency of coordinated regional action.
She highlighted key outcomes from the Bermuda summit, including the delivery of the CTO Airlift Study by ASM and the establishment of the annual summit platform. The study identified steady regional traffic growth, but also highlighted major capacity gaps in Europe and parts of South America, including Italy, Argentina, Chile and Brazil, where direct routes remain limited but viable.
Destinations were urged to strengthen their business cases for airlines, reduce risk through joint marketing initiatives, make better use of existing infrastructure before expanding, and address high aviation taxes and airport fees that continue to discourage intra-Caribbean travel.
“Competition is our fragmentation – we must expand our collective marketing power,” Harris said, quoting Sint Maarten Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism Grisha Heyliger-Marten.
The Bermuda summit also produced a memorandum of understanding between the CTO and Airports Council International – Latin America and the Caribbean, aimed at deepening cooperation between aviation and tourism stakeholders.
CTO Secretary-General and CEO Dona Regis-Prosper said maintaining momentum is essential.
“Hosting the 2027 summit in Jamaica will allow us to translate the insights from Bermuda into concrete actions – forging new partnerships, addressing persistent challenges in airlift and strengthening the One Caribbean vision for resilient, connected growth,” she said.
Regis-Prosper is expected to meet with Jamaica’s Director of Tourism Donovan White to advance planning for the summit, which will focus on improving airline business cases, expanding interline agreements, optimizing infrastructure, and diversifying source markets.
The announcement comes as the region continues to navigate geopolitical and economic pressures, even as tourism from South America shows strong growth. Arrivals from the region increased by 23.7 percent in 2025, reaching 2.4 million visitors to the Caribbean.
Separately, Saint Lucia will host the inaugural CTO Latin American Market Summit on May 5–6, 2027, with a focus on strengthening air connectivity to that fast-growing region.
