Canadians will soon have another easy, direct route to one of the Caribbean’s most exotic – and tasty – destinations.
Air Canada on 16DEC will launch direct service to Martinique, with weekly flights on Saturdays from YYZ to FDF running until 31MAR, 2024.
“It’s a historic moment,” Martinique Tourism Authority CEO Bruno Brival said at a gathering of agents and media in Toronto on 07NOV. “This new routes opens doors to new opportunities.”
Air Canada currently operates five flights a week from YUL to FDF in peak season, while Air Transat has three flights between the two airports.
Brival told Open Jaw that roughly 16,000 Canadians visited the island last year, making Canada the island’s largest international market. He wants to boost that number by 25% over the next few years, hopefully with more flights from Canada’s biggest city.
Canadian travel advisors also have a key role to play in getting the word out, he said. Martinique tourism also is working closely with Air Canada Vacations.
Brival said Martinique is known for its unique French-European-African culture and for the variety and quality of its culinary offerings. The island also has towering waterfalls, tons of hiking trails, both black and white-sand beaches, and great diving and water sports.
It’s also the rum capital of the Caribbean, with 14 distilleries selling products in 160 countries around the world, he said.
Mount Pelee, a volcano in the northern part of the island, was named a UNESCO world heritage site earlier this year.
Brival thanked both Air Canada and MSC Cruises for their help in promoting visits to Martinique.
Air Canada and Martinique tourism have a long-standing relationship that’s actually more of a friendship, said Karen Acs, Senior Manager, Regional Sales.
The flights from Montreal are fine for customers in southern Ontario, she said, “but nothing beats a direct flight.”
Acs said the flights from YYZ will be operated on a Boeing 737 MAX with 16 business class seats and 153 economy seats.
Flights are seasonal for now, but Acs said she hopes the one winter flight will spark service in other times of the year.
“Martinique offers really the best of both worlds,” she said. “You will have an incredible culinary, French-influenced, island-influenced gastronomical experience. And of course that’s combined that with island hospitality. You have all the cultural sites and the beaches … and UNESCO world heritage sites.
“This is more than an island vacation,” she said. “This is a holiday, an exploration, with so much more.”
Tammy Thompson, Business Development Manager, Ontario and Atlantic Canada for MSC Cruises, said the company operates two seven-day itineraries out of Martinique as part of its Fly and Cruise promotion with Air Canada and Martinique Tourism.
”Agents love the package. It’s so simple, and it’s a great deal. We monitor the flights so we make sure everyone gets to port.”
Thompson said the advisor who books the most Fly and Cruise packages to Martinique out of YYZ between 7NOV and 31JAN 2024 will win a spot on the MSC Cruise Seminar at Sea program next year.
Martinique Tourism's Brival also thanked Club Med, which operates Buccaneer’s Creek, the only all-inclusive resort on Martinique. The resort recently finished renovating its superior rooms and suites, as well as the lobby and the main restaurant and bar, and will finish the deluxe rooms next year.
Open Jaw will be on the scene at Buccaneer’s Creek next week, so look for more to come from the destination.
