Photo by Brian Major
Tourism thrives on one thing - the ability to get to a destination from various vantage points.
Nowhere is that more important than in the population-heavy Northeast corridor, which jets thousands of people a day off to Europe, Asia, the Caribbean and all points in between.
Now the island of Martinique's tourism development strategy is getting a big boost as Norwegian Air announced that it would extend its seasonal nonstop service from New York's John F. Kennedy International to Martinique through the end of April 2016. The move comes in response to strong demand for the new flights, which were originally announced in April 2015.
Norwegian's three-times-weekly service from JFK launched on Thursday; today and Monday, the airline begins non-stop service to Martinique from Baltimore and Boston - the first time that Martinique has been directly accessible by air from the Northeast in more than 20 years.
"It's truly wonderful to see our many years of dedicated effort in the New York metro area, and elsewhere across the Northeast, pay off in this way," Muriel Wiltord, Director Americas of the Martinique Promotion Bureau, said in a statement. "The New York market has spoken: they want more Martinique! Our great friends at Norwegian have stepped up with an answer in the affirmative. We could not be happier to see the strong demand being met this winter."
Special introductory fares on Norwegian flights to Martinique are available for purchase on www.norwegian.com.
New nonstop flights from the Northeast aboard Norwegian mark the latest in a series of air service developments making Martinique more accessible to U.S. travelers than ever before. On June 5, 2015, American Airlines expanded its nonstop service from Miami to Martinique, growing from once weekly to four days per-week (Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays). This service expanded to six weekly round-trip flights during July and August, a schedule American will resume for the peak winter season starting December 19, 2015, operating every day except Wednesday.
Connecting service is also available via San Juan on Seaborne Airlines, which operates on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Codeshare agreements between Seaborne and American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and JetBlue Airways make bookings and baggage handling seamless across multiple leading carriers.
Martinique's tourism industry is also seeing unprecedented growth in the cruise sector. The Isle of Flowers has experienced an 800 percent increase in cruise passenger arrivals since 2010. For the 2015-2016 cruise season, The Martinique Tourism Authority is projecting 380,000 cruise passengers, a 73 percent increase over the previous year.
In an effort to continue building on its recent success, the Martinique Promotion Bureau is teaming up with Norwegian Air and Club Med to host more than 40 U.S. travel professionals on fam trips to Martinique in December 2015. The trips, which coincide with the launch of Norwegian inaugural flights from New York, Boston, and Baltimore, include a mix of journalists and travel agents.
"Once our travel agent partners and friends in the media enjoy a small taste of Martinique, we are confident they will help us spread the word on the wonders that await U.S. travelers here, thereby continuing the momentum we've built and getting us off to a strong start in 2016," added Wiltord.
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