Leisure For Pleasure Holidays and Tours Limited took home a glittering array of prizes including the number one award for being the ‘Top Producing Local Travel Agency for 2023 at Tuesday night’s (February 20) gala sales awards of Ocean By H10 Hotels for the resort’s Coral Spring and Eden Bay (OCS & OEB) properties in Trelawny, held at Ocean Coral Spring.  

The company which will celebrate 25 years in the trade in May this year, over the years, has copped several awards including the Number One Local Producer in Hotel Sales – Grand Palladium Resorts Jamaica (2021 – 2023); Number One Local Producer in Hotel Leisure Sales – Deja Resorts (2019 & 2023);  Number One Producer in Hotel Leisure Sales – Jewel Paradise Cove (2021 & 2022); Number One Local Producer in Hotel Leisure Sales – Hilton Rose Hall (2022), Number One Local Producer in Hotel Sales – Royalton Luxury Resorts (2022) and the Number One Producer in Hotel Sales – Ocean Coral Springs and Ocean Eden Bay Resorts in 2022. The company also copped the Number One Producer in Hotel Sales Award for Iberostar Resorts for seven consecutive years (2015 – 2021).and for Riu Hotels & Resorts Jamaica (2016 – 2021) 

Judith James-Watts, managing director of Leisure For Pleasure, notes that her company had persevered through many trying times in the tourism industry including the 9/11 terrorism event which severely curtailed global travel, various hurricanes and natural disasters, the Covid Pandemic and other crises over the years.

“Despite the sensitivities of our industry, we have stuck to our task by pursuing excellence and with the grace of God in whom we trust,” she noted.

At the core of her company’s success is a team effort encompassing sales, administration and accounting.

“Leisure For Pleasure takes a hands-on approach to understanding the product which means visiting the various properties and attractions, as well as cruise lines, in order to fully appreciate them and pick up areas for improvement as part of our customer-centric ethos, as well as constant staff training to understand the global tourist market”, she points out. 

The upshot is that Leisure for Pleasure is able to book holidays and cruises around the globe for a wide range of budgets and interests and to recommend the best choice for its customers including resort stays, adventure tourism, meetings and conferences and increasingly for areas such as health and gastronomic tourism.

“By keeping abreast of market trends we are able to understand the needs of our clients and we are aware of growing interest in areas such as cultural, heritage, sports, health and wellness tourism, which Jamaica and other markets are beginning to cater more to. 

“Jamaica has such a natural advantage in these areas due to our renowned reggae music, Blue Mountain Coffee, jerk, ginger and all-spice, among other products. Leisure For Pleasure is also very strong in the local and the Diaspora market where we maintain excellent relations and we plan to expand in these areas going forward,” James-Watts states.