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Tourism Demand Study shows need for J$391.6 Billion in Agricultural and Manufacturing Goods, says Bartlett

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Jamaica Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett says data from a recent demand study shows the need for J$391.6 Billion in goods from the agricultural and manufacturing sectors. The break-out shows a demand for goods of J$352 Billion for manufacturing and J$39.6 Billion for agriculture.

The tourism demand study was designed to identify the existing/potential demand in the tourism sector for goods and services across local sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and entertainment. The study is done through the Ministry’s Tourism Linkages Council.

Minister Bartlett, who officially handed over the demand study to President of the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA) Richard Pandohie, said, “The purpose of the study is to help guide our decisions as it relates to the consumption patterns of our visitors and these figures show a very high demand for products in agriculture and manufacturing.

We want our local tourism suppliers to provide these inputs in agriculture and manufacturing so that we reduce the leakage of our earnings.”

Mr. Pandohie, who accepted the demand study, also highlighted the need to have more inputs supplied locally to reduce the leakage within tourism.

Through the Tourism Linkages Network, the Ministry of Tourism has been strengthening linkages with other sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and entertainment to build the capacity of local suppliers to meet the growing demands within tourism.

“What these figures indicate is that there are many opportunities for increased linkages with local suppliers to facilitate import substitution in producing various items. The aim of the Ministry of Tourism is to foster more purchasing of local goods and services, which will reduce the imports and help to plug the leakages from importation,” said Minister Bartlett.

The study found specifically that the significant increase in hotel constructions across the island has influenced the demand for manufactured products needed to furnish these establishments.

The study also highlighted that mainly local producers were satisfying the demand for goods and services in the tourism sector, but that importation also constituted a reasonable proportion of expenditure on certain items.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jamaica Ministry of Tourism, Corporate Communications, 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, Tel: 920-4926-30, Fax: 920-4944

Tourism Ministry to Spend More on Marketing Carnival in Jamaica

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Jamaica Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett has announced that his Ministry will be increasing investment in developing Carnival in Jamaica as a tourism product, which will be marketed to destinations across the globe.

Speaking yesterday at the launch of Carnival in Jamaica, at the AC Hotel in Kingston, the Minister said, “The Tourism Linkages Network will continue to support Carnival in Jamaica. We are committed to spend more on it, not for events, but to build the product because that is what will be sustainable and lasting.”

He added that, “Events are good, but you cannot market and package events in the same way you can with a product. In tourism, we drive and market products. We package these products as a combination of rooms, air seats and the experience.”

The marketing efforts for last year’s event proved effective, with data from the Jamaica Tourist Board showing that visitor arrivals through Norman Manley International Airport for the respective Easter/Carnival periods between 2018 and 2019 increased by 11.5% from 9,881 to 11,014 visitors.

Additionally, in the few days leading up to the culmination of Carnival in Jamaica, there was an increase in visitor arrivals from NMIA in 2019 of 18.4% over 2018’s Carnival lead up.

For an average of five nights, visitors also spent approximately US$240 per person per night; up from US$236 in 2018.

“Carnival was re-energised in 2017 with one intention in mind – to create a carnival product so that we can market it… This building out of the product will create an economic arrangement that will generate jobs and employment for hundreds of people, which is the bottom line for prosperity from carnival,” said the Minister.

The data highlighted that Carnival in Jamaica, resulted in an increase in economic activity in a myriad of subsectors, such as entertainment and the creative industries, attractions, ground transportation, auto rentals, catering, media, and retail. 

Thirty-three percent of carnival participants visited an attraction, 49% dined out, and 47% participated in nightlife activities.

Kingston hotels were booked to capacity with 30% of carnival patrons staying in hotels. Airbnb was also a beneficiary with 28% opting for homestays and the remainder staying in private homes, villas, guesthouses and apartments.

“We are marketing Jamaica as a destination for music, entertainment, food, and most importantly – for love. That combination now makes Jamaica, the heartbeat of the world. You will hear more about that as we move on, in terms of our marketing arrangements across the globe,” said the Minister. 

He further explained that, “This marketing drive has become a critical component of the architecture and the arrangements that we are making for disseminating ideas and information about Jamaica. This is very important to us because we are looking forward to building the city of Kingston, as the entertainment sector of the Caribbean.

In doing so, we are not competing with Trinidad or other destinations. We are creating something that is authentic, opinionated – something that people would come to Jamaica to experience and to consume and go nowhere else to get.”

Carnival in Jamaica was launched in 2017 and is used as the umbrella brand for all carnival activities, during the carnival period, making it a national product. This is an annual undertaking, which aims to transform the carnival experience locally. It is a key initiative of the Tourism Linkages Network with support from the Jamaica Tourist Board and key stakeholders.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jamaica Ministry of Tourism, Corporate Communications, 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, Tel: 920-4926-30, Fax: 920-4944

Jamaica Rum Festival to be Marketed as Tourism Product

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Jamaica Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, has announced that the Jamaica Rum Festival (JRF) will be packaged and marketed as a tourism product and sold to potential visitors to the island.

Speaking at the launch of the festival at Devon House last evening, Minister Bartlett said: “We want the rum festival to be a product, not just an event. So, we want to, through the Jamaica Tourist Board, package it with rooms and with seats and bring the visitors to Jamaica to consume this critical asset that is from the heart and soul of the Jamaican people.”

The JRF covers an exploration of Jamaican rum; how it is made; the varying types and how best to enjoy it.

Globally, millions of people travel annually to attend various types of festivals, which have become a niche that destinations can capitalize on to boost arrivals and earnings.  Last year, the JRF attracted 6000 patrons.

Minister Bartlett said: “In marketing the festival as a product, I am building out the capacity to retain the earnings from the tourism industry. In 2016, we were retaining only 30 cents on the dollar.

“Today because of the networks and the various new and opinionated attractions that we are putting together in Jamaica plus the increase in rooms and airlift, we now retain 40.8 cents on the dollar, which is an increase of 30 percent, the highest in the Caribbean.”

The Ministry’s Tourism Linkages Network continues to strengthen the links between tourism and other economic sectors to increase consumption of local goods and services, diversify the tourism product and retain more of the country’s foreign exchange earnings.

“We are committed to creating a tourism that is reimagined that provides the most authentic Jamaican experiences for our visitors. In doing that, we will allow our small suppliers to earn more from the value chain of the sector by providing their creativity and passion,” added the Minister.

More news about Jamaica.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jamaica Ministry of Tourism, Corporate Communications, 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, Tel: 920-4926-30, Fax: 920-4944

Plans in High Gear for UNWTO Conference on Resilience and Innovation

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Jamaica Tourism Minister Hon. Edmund Bartlett says plans are in high gear for Jamaica to host the first ever UNWTO  (United Nations World Tourism Organization) Summit on Innovation and Resilience Management, in Montego Bay this May.

“Jamaica has been selected as the venue for the first ever Global Summit on Innovation and Resilience Management. This is very important for us as a destination because the discussions on resilience have become the new reality within tourism and by extension the global space. It is resilience that will give us the capacity to respond to the global disruptions that are coming daily,” said Minister Bartlett.

The two-day UNWTO Global Summit on Innovation and Resilience Management begins on May 28 at the Montego Bay Convention Centre and coincides with the 65th Meeting of the Regional Commission for the Americas (CAM), of which Jamaica is currently the Chair.

“This conference is going to look very seriously at models [of resilience building] and get best practices from different countries on how ideas have been coming together to build capacity and help us in the Caribbean in terms of dealing with these seismic events that are now part of our reality,” he said.

He added that, “The other key part of it is innovation, which is at the heart of understanding how to add value to our process.  Adding value is what we are about… So start-ups will be a big part of this conference. We are going to be looking at examples of start-ups with the Caribbean.”

The Tourism Minister also stated that the conference is going to focus on how to create new and exciting experiences for the industry with key experts from across the globe sharing how they think the future of tourism is going to be constructed.

“We have to get a better understanding overall about how the future of tourism is going to be constructed and this conference will seek to look into that. Change creates a level of uncertainty unless you have knowledge and you are able to be guided by analytics. This is what we are about… We are building the capacity to be able to project better, to respond faster and to be nimble and adaptive,” said Minister Bartlett.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jamaica Ministry of Tourism, Corporate Communications, 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, Tel: 920-4926-30, Fax: 920-4944

Cruise Passengers to Receive Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee

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Jamaica Tourism Minister Hon. Edmund Bartlett says cruise passengers onboard the Norwegian Bliss, which is set to dock in Ocho Rios tomorrow, will all receive a cup of Jamaica Blue Mountain (JBM) Coffee on arrival.

The gesture marks the start of a new initiative, by the Tourism Ministry and key stakeholders, to have JBM offered to all cruise passengers disembarking at Jamaica’s main ports. It is being organized to help increase brand awareness and sale of locally grown premium coffee to international markets.

“Tomorrow when the Norwegian Bliss arrives in Ocho Rios we will begin the program I announced last year of having coffee tastings at the cruise ports, when cruise ships arrive in Jamaica.  So 4,000 cruisers and 1,700 crew members will arrive tomorrow and they will all get a cup of our Jamaican Coffee,” said Minister

The Minister made this announcement earlier today, during the launch of the third staging of the Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Festival, at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston.

He shared that the new marketing initiative for coffee would also include having the product featured at all international events that the Ministry of Tourism and the Jamaica Tourist Board will participate in this year.

“We are going to be inserting the Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee in the marketing arrangements for upcoming tradeshows. In fact, we actually used it recently at our display in Japan.

Now we are going to Berlin in March, for ITB, and we are going to establish there, the start of our coffee tasting arrangements, which will now be a feature of all our tourism exhibitions at trade shows across the world,” said Minister Bartlett.

As the Ministry seeks to target new markets to visit the island, the Tourism Minister added that the Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Festival would be a key part of their promotion for March arrivals.

“This festival is not just an event, it is a product. After two years, we have been able to learn a lot, hone our skills in putting this arrangement together and to package it. Now we are at a position where we can create this product, which can be inserted in the market and be tied into marketing packages that we will be selling to our visitors,” he said.

The Minister said that initiatives like the coffee festival builds sustainability in the tourism sector by integrating events, businesses and communities in a way that creates jobs, builds local economies and spreads tourism’s benefits beyond the traditional resort areas.

“In celebrating coffee, we are also seeing it as a huge driver of economic wellbeing. Not only is it a commodity for export and for trading in general, not only is it a means of income for a large number of small and large farmers, but it is also a catalyst that enables a number of  other economic activities to happen and a wider range of employment for a number of other people,” he said.

The Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Festival is a three-day signature event led by the Tourism Linkages Network and other key partners.  It includes a Farmers Trade Day, Marketplace Day and the Jamaica Blue Mountain Culinary Trail Brunch.

Last year’s Marketplace Day was a sold-out event with over 1200 patrons.  It included some 50 Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs) – such as purveyors of coffee-infused spa products like soaps, body scrubs and butters as well as producers of delicious coffee-infused foods from chicken to sweet treats.

This year’s event will take place from March 20 – 22, in Newcastle, St. Andrew.

More news about Jamaica.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jamaica Ministry of Tourism, Corporate Communications, 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, Tel: 920-4926-30, Fax: 920-4944

Minister Bartlett says his Ministry is committed to increase of local goods consumed in hospitality industry

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Jamaica’s Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett says the Agricultural Sector must be transformed to better meet the consumption requirements of visitors to the island.

“The production patterns of agriculture in the region has to be lifted to a higher level where we are the suppliers of what is required for consumption. We must train and develop human capacity to improve the production and consumption patterns within our space,” said Minister Bartlett.

He said his Ministry is working very closely with the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, to increase consumption of locally grown food in the sector and to assist farmers who supply the sector.

This drive has been led by the Tourism Linkages Network, in collaboration with the Agriculture Ministry, and has resulted in the creation of several programmes and initiatives geared towards building the capacity of farmers to supply on this demand and ultimately earn more from the tourism pie.

The Minister made these remarks at the USAID’s Farmer-to-Farmer Conference 2020, hosted at the Liguanea Club on January 06, 2020.

“We commend initiatives like the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Programme that focus on human capital development, of some of our most critical members of society – our farmers. At the Ministry of Tourism, we too have been focusing on development of industry workers by providing training and certification for not just our workers but key suppliers in the sector,” said Minister Bartlett.

He stressed that gastronomy is one of the leading reasons for travel. Therefore, in order for Jamaica to retain more earnings from this niche, it is critical for us to supply more of the goods locally.

Data from the Tourism Linkages Network’s 2019 demand study, which looks at the demands or inputs required for the sector, also revealed that the total value of demand for agricultural products in the tourism amounted to J$39.6 billion.

“The relationship between travel tourism and gastronomy is at the heart of the reasons for people to move from destination to destination. Eighty-eight percent of the people in the world travel for food experiences and 42% of the expenditures of the visitor is on food.

Agriculture and farmers become a central part of travel and tourism. Since we are about fulfilling the passions of people and food is the number one passion, then the farmer is the number one partner with tourism,” said the Minister.

The Minister congratulated the participants of the (F2F) program and reminded them of the importance to share best practices to further strengthen regional growth in Agriculture and Tourism industries.

“I want to congratulate you for having this dialogue, and to implore you to be as innovative as you can. What you are about to do is not about food safety in the broadest sense, but it is about economics and resilience that you are building in the regions that you represent.

The capacity we are trying to build, to generate more of what the visitors need within the area, is the insurance that we are providing for higher level of retention of the dollars that are earned,” he said.

Since 1991, Partners’ Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program has been transforming lives in over 30 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia by connecting specialized volunteers from the United States with farmers, cooperatives, agribusinesses, extension services, government agencies and other institutions.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jamaica Ministry of Tourism, Corporate Communications, 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, Tel: 920-4926-30, Fax: 920-4944

African Tourism Board shined again, again and again

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African Tourism Board executives shined last week during the World Travel Market, the Tourism Resilience Council meeting, the International Tourism Investment summit, WTTC meeting, PATA meeting, the UNWTO Ministerial Meeting, the Global Tourism Resilience Board Meeting and during the SunX event, the ETOA Brexit discussion. All of this was part of a busy agenda attended by executives of the newly formed African Tourism Board.

ATB executives, patrons, advisory board members and ambassadors including Cuthbert Ncube, Doris Woerfel, Juergen Steinmetz, Simba Mandinyenya, Dr . Taleb Rifai,  Hon. Najib Balala, Hon. Edward Bartlett, Dov Kalmann, Hon.Memunatu Pratt, Graham Cooke,  Tony Smyth, Prof. Geoffrey Lipman, Karen Hofmann, Daniela Wagner, Hisham Zazou, were seen also representing the African Tourism Board flag during a full week of tourism activities in the British capital last week.

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Hon. Minister Pratt
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Cuthbert Ncube and Hon. E Bartlett
Hon Najib Balala, Doris Woerfel and Cuthbert Ncube
Prof. Geoffrey Lipman
The African Tourism Board is an NGO based in Pretoria, South Africa with a philosophy to have tourism as a catalyst for unity, peace, growth, prosperity, job creation for the people of Africa -with a vision where Africa becomes one tourist destination of choice in the world.
More information on the African Tourism Board: www.africantourismboard.com

MEDIA CONTACT: TravelMarketingNetwork, 954 Lexington Ave. #1037, New York, NY 10021 USA, PH: (+1) 718-374-6816, marketing@travelmarketingnetwork.com   

Bartlett attends UNWTO Executive Council Meeting Welcome Reception

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Jamaica Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, seen left in the main photo, is keeping the Hon. Didier Dogley, Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine for the Seychelles and Dr. the Hon. Charles Banda, Chairman, United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Executive Council, amused during the welcome reception for delegates to the 110th UNWTO Executive Council Meeting.

The event took place on Sunday, June 16, at the Mugham Club Restaurant in Baku, Azerbaijan. The UNWTO Executive Council meeting is taking place June 16-18 in Baku.

Above, the Jamaica Minister of Tourism Bartlett, seen on the left, poses for a photograph with Mr. Zurab Pololikashvili, United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary General, and Mr. Fuad Naghiyev, Chairman of Azerbaijan’s State Tourism Agency. The three gentlemen met at the welcome reception for delegates.

The Executive Council, in consultation with ‎the Secretary-General, works to implement its own decisions and ‎recommendations of the Assembly.‎ The Council meets at least twice a year.‎

MEDIA CONTACT: Jamaica Ministry of Tourism, Corporate Communications, 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, Tel: 920-4926-30, Fax: 920-4944

Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Bartlett named PATWA advisor

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Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett has accepted an invitation to become an advisor to international travel writers’ group — Pacific Area Travel Writers Association (PATWA).

The invitation was made by the group’s Secretary General, Sagur Ahluwalia last Friday, who shared that the Minister’s rich experience will be beneficial to the organization.

In expressing his gratitude, Minister Bartlett said, “It is an honour to have been selected as an advisor to the prestigious PATWA organization. I offer my services to the organization and hope that we are able to share ideas which will have a positive impact on the growth of tourism both regionally and internationally.”

PATWA is a professional organisation of travel writers which was founded in 1998, at the Pacific Area Travel Association (PATA) Conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Its founding philosophy is to support PATA’s primary objectives of being a catalyst for responsibly developing the travel and tourism industry in the Asia Pacific region.

Minister Bartlett was this year awarded the Pacific Area Travel Writers Association’s (PATWA) Tourism Minister of the Year for Sustainable Tourism for 2018 in Berlin, Germany
During the awards presentation, Jamaica also received PATWA’s International Travel Award for Destination of the Year.

The awards recognised ¬individuals and organisations that have excelled and/or are involved in the promotion of ¬tourism from different sectors of the travel trade and service ¬providers related directly or indirectly to the industry.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jamaica Ministry of Tourism, Corporate Communications, 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, Tel: 920-4926-30, Fax: 920-4944

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Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Bartlett pumps J$200 million into Linkages Networks

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Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett has committed J$200 million to the Linkages Networks to help build out more products to enhance the visitor experience and ensure more inclusive growth in the sector.

Speaking at the launch of the new Top Events Jamaica Initiative yesterday at Devon House, Minister Bartlett said, “This year, we will be spending 200 Million dollars on the Networks to create the level of inclusiveness that connects the ordinary Jamaican to the tourism product and the product to the ordinary Jamaican.

This will be a huge game changer and we are going to change the narrative and also change the feeling of the public that tourism is only for the bigger suppliers and doesn’t include the smaller players.”

The Tourism Linkages Network’s (TLN’s) main focus has been to bring local tourism suppliers in contact with other sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing. In doing so, the Linkages Network creates more economic opportunities for our local tourism suppliers who can then earn more.

Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett (1st R) paused for a photo at the track and field display at the launch of the new Top Events Jamaica Initiative yesterday at Devon House

Driving this inclusive growth are five networks geared towards building out authentic Jamaican experiences for the visitors and increasing the earning potential of small suppliers and they are – Gastronomy, Sports and Entertainment, Shopping, Knowledge and Health and Wellness.

The new Top Events Jamaica initiative, being spearheaded by the TLN, is designed to increase visitor participation in events and activities island-wide through strategic partnerships and leveraging the power of technology, social media, and advertising.

In highlighting the importance of this new platform, Minister Bartlett, said, “Top Events will place all our best entertainment products and offerings under one roof. In doing so we are allowing visitors and locals alike to chance to find these offerings with the click of a button. Top events will be a critical element that brings together our authentic Jamaican entertainment products under one roof through the use of technology.

This type of interface is critical in the age of technology especially given that entertainment forms a large part of why people travel and as such there is value in building out more products of this nature to drive arrivals and growth in the sector.”

The Top Events initiative will include a microsite and an easy to use mobile app to increase visitor awareness and participation in the over 900 events held in Jamaica each month. To qualify for listing on Top Events, event organizers must meet the predetermined criteria outlined by the TLN that guarantees continuity in the content delivery and effective data capture.

The TLN’s Sports and Entertainment Network (SEN) will be the driving force behind Top Events Jamaica and the body ultimately responsible for the final selection of “Top Events” to be added to the event calendar.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jamaica Ministry of Tourism, Corporate Communications, 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, Tel: 920-4926-30, Fax: 920-4944

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