Visa requirements have been waived for eastern Europeans who plan on visiting Jamaica.

According to Dr. Wykeham McNeill , the Minister of Tourism ,Cabinet has approved the waiving of visa requirements for nationals of Russia, the Chez Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine visiting Jamaica for purposes of tourism and cultural exchange for periods of thirty days or less.

Cabinet has also approved the indefinite extension of the current visa waiver requirement in place for nationals of Columbia, Panama, and Venezuela.

This will be subject to the outcome of periodic reviews of the situation.

“This is all tremendous news as we continue to make positive headway towards removing barriers to travel while creating ease of access to visitors from these new and emerging market frontiers Jamaica is so aggressively forging into” said McNeil said.
He pointed out that “the continued removal of the barriers to travel, such as improving the visa regimes, is all a part of our strategy to diversify our markets while improving airlift security.  These initiatives will certainly work towards boosting our visitor arrivals.”

At the start of the year, Jamaica welcomed the inaugural Transearo Airlines flight from Moscow, Domodedovo to the  Sangster International Airport  in the western city of Montego Bay with over three hundred passengers and crew from Russia.

Transearo Airlines is Russia’s second largest carrier and flies to 40 countries on 130 routes and has hubs in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg. They operate flights between Moscow and Belorussia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.