Travel advisors walk the walk for Jamaica at Jam-Walk 2025

An energetic group of travel advisors gathered early Saturday morning (May 24) at Toronto's Palais Royale for the 16th annual Jam-Walk, supporting Helping Hands Jamaica Foundation's (HHJF) mission to build schools in Jamaica's underserved communities.

In true ‘One Love’ spirit, the travel trade came together to give back to one of their beloved destinations. The five kilometre walk brought well over 100 participants along Toronto’s Martin Goodman Trail, raising approximately $65,000 to date for HHJF’s 28th school build taking place in January 2026. The donation site remains open until May 30, 2025.

“We started this in my backyard 16 years ago with four people, most of whom are here, and today we’ll have over 100 people,” founder and chairman Karl Hale told PAX. “We’re celebrating our charity, now in its 20th year.”

The Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) was given a shout-out for its “generous and continuous” sponsorship of Jam-Walk since its inception, driving growth in travel trade participation year after year.

“Our agents don’t just love selling Jamaica, they love supporting the destination," shared Angella Bennett, the JTB's regional director for Canada, speaking with PAX at the event.

She said the enthusiasm has grown significantly since 2019. “We started with maybe 10 agents. We're now up to 50-60 agents. They even remind us, asking if the site is up yet for the build? Is the site up for the walk?”

Voluntourism in action 

HHJF raises funds to build schools and increase education access for children in Jamaica’s under-resourced communities. For travel advisors eager to make a difference, HHJF creates unforgettable voluntourism trips that mix impactful construction work with real connections to local culture.

“We build half of the day from 8 a.m. to Noon, and in the afternoon, we do some excursions. After about five days, we have a grand opening of the school,” Hale told PAX.

Tyler Smith, an advisory board member of the foundation, illustrated the emotional impact of the experience by sharing a heartfelt story from a recent build he participated in with his family.

“On the bus home, we're exhausted, we're wet, we're tired, and my daughter turned to me and said, ‘Daddy, when can we do that again?’ I was like, okay, very emotional.”

The 20th anniversary voluntourism trip, scheduled for January 5-11, 2026, in Treasure Beach, on Jamaica's south coast, will be a larger-than-usual build supporting two projects - restoring an existing school and constructing a new two-story building to meet growing demand.

“As we have a larger task this year, we need even more helping hands,” said Natasha Borota, president of The It Factor Ltd., which manages the builds. “We’re hoping to take more than 70 volunteers and there are still some spots available." 

Jamaica's tourism momentum continues

As for how Jamaican tourism is doing, Canadian visitation numbers continue to rise. "We're up to 4.3 million arrivals and 4.3 billion in revenue this year - from this, Canada delivered almost 400,000 arrivals,” Bennett told PAX.

Canada is driving a lot of growth with added airlift. "We have over 35,000 additional seats going into the destination. So over 330,000 seats for winter, and we're not done yet — there's more to come, with more announcements to be made, but we are reaching half a million arrivals by 2026," Bennett said.

The momentum extends into the summer season as well.

"We have additional capacity for summer – 17,000 additional seats," Bennett added. She acknowledged that part of this growth may possibly be due to “some of the tariff fallout that is happening across our borders."

Jamaica also continues to ramp up its room inventory with “almost 8,000 (rooms) in the next three to four years,” Bennett said. 

Bennett also highlighted ongoing airport and highway expansion projects—from Negril to Ocho Rios—aimed at delivering smoother, more convenient travel for Canadians.

Adding to the destination's momentum, Bennett revealed that last Friday (May 23), Usain Bolt, the retired Jamaican gold medalist sprinter, dubbed 'the fastest man alive," has joined Jamaica as a new global tourism ambassador, coinciding with Jamaica's 70th anniversary celebrations.

Marking a milestone year for Jamaica, Bennett hinted that the JTB has plenty more in store, with exciting announcements still to come.

Travel professionals interested in joining HHJF's mission can find details here.

To see more pictures from Jam-Walk 2025, visit and "like" PAX's Facebook page here. 

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