Bartlett to Meet with Travel Partners in Canada and the United States

Jamaica Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, along with other senior tourism officials, will be participating in a series of meetings in the island’s two largest source markets, the United States and Canada, beginning tomorrow, in an effort to increase arrivals to the destination as well as foster further investment in the tourism sector.

Bartlett noted that the trip is critical, as data received by the Ministry indicate that the demand for travel to Jamaica has fallen within the last 7 days. He believes that “this is as a result of the challenges posed by the third wave of COVID-19 impacting the island, as well as, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) recent Level 4 classification, given to Jamaica for having very high levels of COVID-19.”

“Jamaica remains a safe destination and we want to reassure our tourism interests of this. A key factor is our Tourism Resilience Corridors, which have a low infection rate of less than 1%. Our product remains strong and is indeed top of mind, despite the challenges. We will therefore continue to drive the marketing arrangements to minimize any possible fallout,” said Bartlett.

A series of meetings have been planned to engage tourism partners, media and other stakeholders in the USA and Canada, to reassure and bolster confidence in their continued investment projects and the marketing of the destination. 

The Minister, who left the island today, along with the Director of Tourism, Donovan White; Chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board, John Lynch, as well as Senior Strategist in the Tourism Ministry, Delano Seiveright, will meet with major tourism investors. 

While in the United States, the team of tourism officials are also scheduled to meet with executives from American Airlines and Southwest Airlines. They will also meet with officials from major cruise-lines such as Royal Caribbean and Carnival as well as executives from Expedia, Inc., the largest online travel agency in the world, the third largest travel company in the US, and the fourth largest travel company in the world.

Other meetings in Canada will focus on marketing and will span all key partners including airlines, such as Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing, Transat and Swoop. Likewise, they will meet with tour operators, tourism investors, trade and mainstream media and key Diaspora stakeholders.

“We want to assure our partners, and our visitors that we are doing all that we can to ensure that their visit to the island will indeed be a safe one. Our protocols are in place to ensure that you will be able to visit our attractions and have an authentic Jamaican experience, but in a safe and seamless way,” he said.

“We have been ramping up efforts to ensure that our tourism workers are fully vaccinated and have seen much success from this initiative.  Therefore, you can rest assured that visitors are in a safe environment. In fact our safety standards and protocols are highly celebrated worldwide and were key to us being able to welcome over 1 million visitors since we reopened our borders,” said Bartlett.

Minister Bartlett and the other members of the team are slated to return to Jamaica on October 3, 2021.

Media Contact:

Corporate Communications Division

Ministry of Tourism

64 Knutsford Boulevard

Kingston 5

Telephone: 920-4924,

Fax: 906-1729

Or

Kingsley Roberts

Senior Director, Corporate Communications

Ministry of Tourism

64 Knutsford Boulevard

Kingston 5

Tel: 920-4926-30, ext.: 5990

Cell: (876) 505-6118

Fax: 920-4944