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Jamaica and Saudi Arabia to sign document of intent to boost air connectivity

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Jamaica Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett has announced that Jamaica and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have agreed to sign a document of intent, to aid in boosting air connectivity between the Middle East and the Caribbean.

The Minister made the announcement following a series of meetings with His Excellency Ahmed Al Khateeb, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Tourism, who is currently in Jamaica for the 66th meeting of the UNWTO Regional Commission for the Americas. The meeting also included several regional Ministers of Tourism who joined the discussions virtually.

“We talked about air connectivity and how to link the Middle East, the Asian market, and the areas within that side of the world to join us through the mega airlines that are in those areas. Particularly the Etihad, the Emirates and Saudi airlines,” said Bartlett.

“The agreement that we have coming out of that is that Minister Al Khateeb will bring to the table, those major partners, while I will be responsible for coordinating with the countries that are cooperating with us in the multi-destination tourism framework, to enable a Hub and Spoke arrangement so that traffic can move from the Middle East and come into our area and have distribution from one country to the next,” he added.

He further explained that the multi-destination arrangement is critical to the development of tourism in the region as it is “a new formula within this area to drive connectivity across the globe, but more so to broaden the market to create the critical mass that is needed to attract larger airlines and the big tour operators to become interested in us and have a stronger movement of tourism within our area.”

Bartlett noted that this arrangement will be a game-changer for the Caribbean as it will allow new markets to have direct connectivity to the region, thus increasing earnings, especially for small and medium tourism enterprises.

“For us this is a game-changer in the making, because small countries like Jamaica will never have the capacity to have large airlines like Qatar and Emirates coming to us from direct flights. However, we can benefit from these airlines coming into the Caribbean space – landing here in Jamaica but having distribution to other countries in the Caribbean,” he explained.

Dialogue about this arrangement is expected to continue over the next few days, with the hopes of a memorandum of understanding being finalised.

Minister Al Khateeb, expressed gratitude for being invited to Jamaica to participate in discussions that will aid in strengthening connectivity between the Middle East and the Caribbean.

“We discussed with my colleagues, very critical topics and we are in support of creating bridges between the Middle East and the Caribbean. I thank Minister Bartlett for this opportunity and look forward to expanding the corporation for expanding the Middle East and the Caribbean,” said Al Khateeb.

During the meeting, they also discussed other areas of possible collaboration, including human capital development, community tourism and building resilience within the region.

“One of the key areas that we discussed was the development of resilience and crisis management, as well as sustainability as critical pillars on which the recovery of tourism must be predicated. But more so, the importance of building capacity within countries that have tourism as the driver of their economies – countries that are weakly resourced and vulnerable to disruptions. We are going to see collaboration in the building out of the resilience centre here in Jamaica and the resilience centre that is in Saudi Arabia,” said Bartlett.

Minister Al Khateeb shared similar sentiments regarding the importance of building resilience and sustainability, to the future of the industry.

“We all know that tourism represents 10% of the global GDP before the crisis and 10% of global jobs.  Unfortunately, the industry was hit hard by the pandemic, and we lost a lot in 2020 and now with the vaccine and the opening of many countries borders, we started the discussion about how the world will look in the future and started planning for post-COVID and learning from the challenges,” he said.

“So, sustainability is a very important topic. We want to create more resilience in the future and a more sustainable industry – one that respects the environment and culture,” added Al Khateeb.   

More news about Jamaica

MEDIA CONTACT:

Corporate Communications Division

Ministry of Tourism

64 Knutsford Boulevard

Kingston 5

Telephone: 920-4924,

Fax: 906-019

Redouble efforts to facilitate speedy recovery of tourism globally – Bartlett

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Jamaica Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, is calling on global and regional tourism stakeholders to redouble their efforts to facilitate the speedy recovery of the international tourism industry and by extension the global economy.

Minister Bartlett made the call as he chaired the blended staging of the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) 66th Regional Commission of the Americas (CAM), today (June 24).

Minister of Tourism for Saudi Arabia, His Excellency Ahmed Al Khateeb, and Minister of Tourism and International Transport for Barbados, Senator, the Hon. Lisa Cummins, are among the global tourism leaders who have traveled to Jamaica to attend the CAM meeting. Senator Cummins also chairs the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO). The tourism officials also participated in the Ministerial Dialogue on the reactivation of the tourism sector for inclusive growth.

Jamaica Tourism Minister Bartlett highlighted that “international tourism receipts in 2020 declined by 64 percent in real terms, equivalent to a drop of over US$900 billion, while the total loss in export revenues from international tourism amount to nearly US$1.1 trillion.”

He added that “the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism sector in the Americas saw a 68 percent decrease in international tourist arrivals in 2020, recording 70 million down from the 219 million recorded in 2019.” He lamented that according to the UNWTO’s ninth report on travel restrictions, 10 destinations in the Americas, or 20 percent of all destinations in the region, had completely closed their borders as of February 1, 2021, with a downward trend in air traffic. 

While hoping for more positive trends moving forward Mr. Bartlett stressed that “the call now, is to redouble our efforts to work together in practical and meaningful ways for a return to the successful days of travel and tourism.” He said, “I hope that one outcome of this meeting, including the Ministerial Dialogue, will be not only a reiteration of our commitment and political will but at least one concrete step that the region can take together to reactivate tourism.”

Secretary-General of the UNWTO, Mr. Zurab Pololikashvili, in underscoring the need to expedite the recovery of the tourism sector said “we can’t leave anyone behind in this process… Time is crucial, many families especially in the Caribbean do not have another way out of this. It is the main source of income for them and many people and many kids and many families are depending on this income.” 

Minister Al Khateeb underscored the need for greater collaboration in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. “This is a global problem, and the solution has to come from everybody and therefore we have to collaborate and we have to work together,” he expressed. He also called for clear and unified protocols to facilitate the rebound of the tourism sector.

More news about Jamaica

#rebuildingtravel

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

Tourism driving Jamaica’s economic recovery since reopening – Bartlett

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Jamaica Tourism Minister Hon. Edmund Bartlett has revealed that since its reopening in June 2020, the tourism sector has been driving the economic recovery of Jamaica’s economy, through a steady increase in arrivals and tourism earnings.  

Minister Bartlett expressed that “preliminary figures indicate that since the reopening of the tourism sector on June 15, 2020, Jamaica has recorded a total of 816,632 stopover visitors and generated earnings of approximately US$1.31 billon (J$196 billion), over the one-year period.” 

“The earnings from the sector included US$1.2 billion in visitor expenditure; US$28 million in departure taxes; US$19.5 million in passenger fees and charges; US$16.3 million in airline passenger levy; US$8.5 million in hotel room taxes and US$8.1 million in airport improvement fees,” he explained.  

He emphasized that this is further proof that the tourism sector is on a steady path to recovery. Minister Bartlett adds that “for the current calendar year, the Tourism Ministry is reforecasting to deliver 1.61 million visitors against an earlier estimate of 1.15 million, an improvement of 460,000 more visitors.”  

“Tourism recovery is on the horizon. Our tourism sector is rising like a phoenix from the ashes. This more positive outlook for 2021 will also improve the destination’s estimate of earnings from US$1.6 billion to US$1.93 billion, an improvement of US$330 million,” said Bartlett.  

The Minister credits this improvement, in part, to the development of robust health and safety protocols for the sector as well as the establishment of the Tourism COVID-19 Resilient Corridors, which have seen a very low infection rate of 0.6%.  

He also noted that the measures enabled Jamaica to welcome some 342,948 tourists during the first five months of this year (January to May).  

He indicated that estimated earnings, for the period January 2021 to the end of May 2021 is US$514.9 million or roughly J$77 billion. 

“May 2021 showed a remarkable increase in visitor arrivals and overall stopover arrivals, increasing steadily from mid-month consistently to the end of the month. Load factors recorded for May 2021 averaged 73.5%, this is against the forecasted 50% average load factor for 2021, 9.3% less than the 83.1% load factor achieved in May 2019,” he explained. 

The Ministry remains cautiously optimistic of cruise passengers starting to return around July/August. The first cruise out of North America to the Caribbean took place very recently and that has heightened expectations of more setting sail soon.  

More news about Jamaica

#rebuildingtravel

MEDIA CONTACT:

Corporate Communications Division 

Ministry of Tourism 

64 Knutsford Boulevard 

Kingston 5 

Telephone: 920-4924, 

Fax: 906-019 

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 

Top tourism officials to visit Jamaica for high-level UNWTO meeting

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Secretary General of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Mr. Zurab Pololikashvili, and Minister of Tourism for Saudi Arabia, His Excellency Ahmed Al Khateeb, are among the global tourism officials who will visit Jamaica this week to attend the blended staging of the UNWTO’s 66th Regional Commission of the Americas (CAM) on June 24. The trip will mark Mr. Pololikashvili’s first visit to the English-speaking Caribbean. 

Additionally, the Caribbean will also be strongly represented as the Minister of Tourism and International Transport for Barbados, Senator, the Hon. Lisa Cummins, will also travel to Jamaica to attend the CAM meeting to be chaired by Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett. The tourism officials will also participate in the Ministerial Dialogue on the reactivation of the tourism sector for inclusive growth. 

Minister Bartlett indicates that investment will be high on the agenda when local officials meet with the Saudi Minister. He says Mr. Al Khateeb will be arriving with a delegation of eleven, including an investor who will hold talks with Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator, the Hon. Aubyn Hill, around a number of matters including renewable energy. 

Noting the importance of Mr. Al Khateeb’s visit, Minister Bartlett said it will be the first by a Saudi Arabian Minister of Tourism and that he is seen as the leading minister holding that portfolio in the Arabian region. He also oversees the Red Sea project, said to be the largest tourism venture to be undertaken anywhere in the world. 

Mr. Bartlett revealed that the Red Sea project involves building out a number of islands to create a whole new US$40-billion tourism experience that will rival the much talked about Dubai development and is expected to transform Saudi Arabia’s oil-based economy into one driven by tourism. Minister Bartlett said this was of significance to Jamaica as it underscored the central value of tourism as a transformational tool in economic development. 

The Saudi tourism minister will be visiting the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) at the University of the West Indies, where he will participate in a bi-lateral meeting on tourism cooperation. “We will have a series of discussions relating to fostering collaboration between tourism in Jamaica and tourism in Saudi Arabia,” Minister Bartlett disclosed. 

Also, on their agenda is exploring areas of community tourism and cruise development, as well as sustainability and resilience “and the building out of a very tangible facility, we hope, in the region to enable a broader appreciation of sustainable tourism, as well as the importance of resilience in building the capacity to recover from disruptions that will ultimately happen,” said Mr. Bartlett. 

While here, the tourism officials and their delegations will tour the Bob Marley Museum, the GTRCMC and Craighton Estate. Minister Bartlett will also host a welcome dinner for the special guests at the Devon House, while Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness will extend the same courtesy at AC Marriott Hotel. 

More news about Jamaica

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 

Minister Bartlett expresses appreciation to St. James public health workers

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Jamaica Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett (seen left in the photo) expresses sincere appreciation to St. James Public Health Department staff and other healthcare workers for their commitment in going the extra mile to vaccinate the public against the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Minister Bartlett lauded the workers as he visited the vaccination blitz site at the Montego Bay Convention Centre on Saturday, June 19, 2021. He underscored that healthcare workers have a crucial role to play in enabling the quick recovery, not just of the tourism sector, but of the Jamaican economy overall.   

The Jamaica Ministry of Tourism and its agencies are on a mission to enhance and transform Jamaica’s tourism product, while ensuring that the benefits which flow from the tourism sector are increased for all Jamaicans. To this end it has implemented policies and strategies that will provide further momentum for tourism as the engine of growth for the Jamaican economy. The Ministry remains committed to ensuring that the tourism sector makes the fullest contribution possible to Jamaica’s economic development given its tremendous earning potential.

At the Ministry, they are leading the charge to strengthen the linkages between tourism and other sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and entertainment, and in so doing encourage every Jamaican to play their part in improving the country’s tourism product, sustaining investment, and modernizing and diversifying the sector to foster growth and job creation for fellow Jamaicans. The Ministry sees this as critical to Jamaica’s survival and success and has undertaken this process through an inclusive approach, which is driven by the Resort Boards, through wide-scale consultation.

Recognizing that a collaborative effort and a committed partnership between the public and private sectors will be needed to achieve set targets, central to the Ministry’s plans is maintaining and nurturing its relationship with all key stakeholders. In so doing, it is believed that with the Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development as a guide and the National Development Plan – Vision 2030 as a benchmark – the Ministry’s goals are achievable for the benefit of all Jamaicans.

More news about Jamaica

Media contact:  

Corporate Communications Division 

Ministry of Tourism  

64 Knutsford Boulevard 

Kingston 5 

Telephone: 920-4924 

Fax: 920-4944 

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 

Consultations underway to address gaps in tourism supply chain – Bartlett

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Preparations are in high gear to enable Jamaican producers to better meet the demands of a revived tourism industry. To this end, the Ministry of Tourism is working in tandem with the Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries and has initiated a series of high-level meetings to finalize the requisite arrangements. 

Two crucial meetings were held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre on the weekend with representatives from the agricultural sector: One meeting involving the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), to discuss the supply chain for meat and meat cuts, and agricultural produce, and the other with the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association, exploring supply chain issues. 

Minister of Tourism Hon. Edmund Bartlett said the highly-anticipated consultations were being undertaken in order to address issues relating to the supply side of the sector. He noted that the discussions were: “In the vein of reimagining tourism in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and to drive the new production and consumption patterns that we require to enable more local Jamaicans to be connected to the tourism value chain.” This is aimed at ensuring that a larger percentage of the tourism dollar stays in Jamaica and more jobs created. 

The meetings, spearheaded by Minister Bartlett and Minister of Agriculture & Fisheries, Hon. Floyd Green, were welcomed as they facilitated dialogue with purveyors of goods that are sold to tourism players, followed by a discussion with the hoteliers. “The first element of this arrangement is to have a sense of what the demand is by hearing from the hotels then to hear from the agricultural producers what it is that they can supply,” Mr. Bartlett disclosed. 

“The picture emerging from this consultation is that the tourism industry is saying we are ready to start buying local in a fulsome way; what we want is for the local capacity to be developed to ensure the consistency of supply, the quantity and quality and that the price is good,” said Minister Bartlett. He highlighted that “those four factors will influence greatly a higher degree of purchasing from our local providers” and the discussion will continue towards assuring suppliers and purchasers of consistency on both sides. 

Chairman of the Tourism Linkages Council, Adam Stewart and Chairman of the Agricultural Sub-Committee, Wayne Cummings will meet with agricultural stakeholders in the next two weeks to fine tune the demand requirements and supply capabilities.  

Additionally, Mr. Bartlett said discussions had been initiated with the banking sector to be a part of the drive to facilitate the full recovery of the tourism industry.  

He expressed confidence that tourism was showing signs of recovery “and this is why we’re moving so fast to bring the partners together because the pandemic brought tourism literally to a halt and what it meant is that we were all at point zero, and this is a good time to bring the partners together so that we build back together.”   

Minister Bartlett underscored that all parties growing together would augur well for the industry and that all Jamaicans stand to benefit from a unified approach. 

More news about Jamaica

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 

Bartlett lauds NCB on launch of Tourism Response Impact Portfolio (TRIP) initiative

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Jamaica Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, (seen left in the photo) engaged with Mr. Steven Gooden, CEO – NCB Capital Markets Limited, in discussion.

The occasion was the launch of NCB Capital Markets’ Tourism Response Impact Portfolio (TRIP) at the AC Marriott Hotel on June 17, 2021. Minister Bartlett was the Keynote Speaker at the event, where he lauded NCB for the launch of their initiative and also encouraged more financial entities to create unique financial offerings to assist players in the tourism industry. 

The Jamaica Ministry of Tourism and its agencies are on a mission to enhance and transform Jamaica’s tourism product, while ensuring that the benefits which flow from the tourism sector are increased for all Jamaicans. To this end it has implemented policies and strategies that will provide further momentum for tourism as the engine of growth for the Jamaican economy. The Ministry remains committed to ensuring that the tourism sector makes the fullest contribution possible to Jamaica’s economic development given its tremendous earning potential.

At the Ministry, they are leading the charge to strengthen the linkages between tourism and other sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and entertainment, and in so doing encourage every Jamaican to play their part in improving the country’s tourism product, sustaining investment, and modernizing and diversifying the sector to foster growth and job creation for fellow Jamaicans. The Ministry sees this as critical to Jamaica’s survival and success and has undertaken this process through an inclusive approach, which is driven by the Resort Boards, through wide-scale consultation.

Recognizing that a collaborative effort and a committed partnership between the public and private sectors will be needed to achieve set targets, central to the Ministry’s plans is maintaining and nurturing its relationship with all key stakeholders. In so doing, it is believed that with the Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development as a guide and the National Development Plan – Vision 2030 as a benchmark – the Ministry’s goals are achievable for the benefit of all Jamaicans.

More news about Jamaica

#rebuildingtravel

MEDIA CONTACT:

Corporate Communications Division 

Ministry of Tourism 

64 Knutsford Boulevard 

Kingston 5 

Telephone: 920-4924, 

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 

TEF to nurture new and start-up tourism enterprises – Bartlett

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As part of efforts to boost the competitiveness of the local tourism product, which has been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Tourism will be developing an Innovation-based Tourism Incubator (ITI). The initiative, led by the Tourism Enhancement Fund, will support entrepreneurs in converting innovative ideas into viable businesses.

Jamaica Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett made the announcement during his Sectoral Debate closing presentation in Gordon House recently under the theme: Recovering Faster, Stronger and Better.

“We believe that tourism is driven by ideas and these ideas have the power to drive the creation of experiences. The ability to convert ideas into material goods and services is the key to differentiating your destination…. And so, the Ministry of Tourism intends to establish a tourism incubator to nurture new and start-up enterprises,” said Minister Bartlett.

This Innovation-Based Business Incubator will provide a unique and highly flexible combination of services, including business support services and infrastructure. It will also nurture these entrepreneurs and support them through the early stages of development and execution.

To deliver these services, TEF will be working with existing stakeholders, but will also seek to expand the list of potential partners. These include, the University of Technology Jamaica, the University of the West Indies (Mona), Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC) and Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO).

“We will also be seeking partnerships for the provision of grants and loans to support the development and commercialization of ideas generated from the incubator,” said the Minister. 

The TEF will then take decisive steps by 2023 to foster innovative ideas on how Jamaica can differentiate the destination from our competition.

The business ideas will be assessed based on various criteria. The ITI will only accept ideas that are an innovation and will enhance the tourism sector. The ITI will also only support original ideas that are useful, or practical in nature from its function to its design.  The idea must also have a significant effect on the tourism industry.

“I want to make it clear that the idea does not have to be an invention. It is not necessarily bringing new things from scratch but is about adding value to what you have. Be creative and ensure that you can do more with what you have,” said Bartlett.

The initiative will start with an open call to all members of the public who have ideas for new tourism products or services, to submit their ideas for review by a panel. Successful candidates will be invited to a boot camp, which will provide participants with the training and support needed to develop their business idea, business model and business plan; develop minimum viable products (MVPs) etc. and to boost the chances of arriving at an effective start-up.

They will then be invited to participate in a “Shark Tank” style Investor Selection Event, to make their product/service pitch to the panelists, who will include potential investors. The ITI will operate virtually and execute its mandate for each entrepreneur over a 2-year period.

“If the investors are not interested, we will then direct the entrepreneurs to the EXIM Bank where we have invested $1 billion to enable loans for small and medium tourism enterprises. They will also have the option to seek assistance from the Jamaica National Bank, where we have $200 million for a similar purpose,” said the Minister.

“In other words we are saying, incentivize ideas, remove the need for collateral where young people have no assets but have ideas and let us convert ideas into practical goods that can change the lives of the people of our country,” he added.

More news about Jamaica

#rebuildingtravel

MEDIA CONTACT:

Corporate Communications Division

Ministry of Tourism

64 Knutsford Boulevard

Kingston 5

Telephone: 920-4924,

Fax: 906-019

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

Panama’s Ambassador to Jamaica pays courtesy call on Jamaica Minister Bartlett

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Jamaica Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, (seen right in the photo), highlights a matter of interest during discussions with Ambassador of the Republic of Panama to Jamaica, Dr. Lasford Douglas, during a courtesy call at the Minister’s New Kingston office recently.

During the meeting, they discussed strengthening Jamaica’s relationship with Panama, the possibility of a multi-destination marketing arrangement as well as the upcoming United Nations World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) Regional Commission for the Americas (CAM) meeting, scheduled for June 23-24, 2021, in Jamaica.

The Jamaica Ministry of Tourism and its agencies are on a mission to enhance and transform Jamaica’s tourism product, while ensuring that the benefits which flow from the tourism sector are increased for all Jamaicans. To this end it has implemented policies and strategies that will provide further momentum for tourism as the engine of growth for the Jamaican economy. The Ministry remains committed to ensuring that the tourism sector makes the fullest contribution possible to Jamaica’s economic development given its tremendous earning potential.

At the Ministry, they are leading the charge to strengthen the linkages between tourism and other sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and entertainment, and in so doing encourage every Jamaican to play their part in improving the country’s tourism product, sustaining investment, and modernizing and diversifying the sector to foster growth and job creation for fellow Jamaicans. The Ministry sees this as critical to Jamaica’s survival and success and has undertaken this process through an inclusive approach, which is driven by the Resort Boards, through wide-scale consultation.

Recognizing that a collaborative effort and a committed partnership between the public and private sectors will be needed to achieve set targets, central to the Ministry’s plans is maintaining and nurturing its relationship with all key stakeholders. In so doing, it is believed that with the Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development as a guide and the National Development Plan – Vision 2030 as a benchmark – the Ministry’s goals are achievable for the benefit of all Jamaicans.

More news about Jamaica

#rebuildingtravel

MEDIA CONTACT:

Corporate Communications Division

Ministry of Tourism 

64 Knutsford Boulevard

Kingston 5

Telephone: 920-4924, 

Fax: 906-019

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

Jamaica Tourism Minister meets with Mexican Ambassador to Jamaica

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Jamaica Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, (seen right in the photo) presented a token of appreciation to the Mexican Ambassador to Jamaica, His Excellency Juan José González Mijares, when the Ambassador visited the Ministry’s Knutsford Boulevard offices recently.

During the visit they discussed possible ways to boost collaboration between both countries as well as the upcoming United Nations World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) Regional Commission for the Americas (CAM) meeting, scheduled for June 23-24, 2021, in Jamaica. 

The Jamaica Ministry of Tourism and its agencies are on a mission to enhance and transform Jamaica’s tourism product, while ensuring that the benefits which flow from the tourism sector are increased for all Jamaicans. To this end it has implemented policies and strategies that will provide further momentum for tourism as the engine of growth for the Jamaican economy. The Ministry remains committed to ensuring that the tourism sector makes the fullest contribution possible to Jamaica’s economic development given its tremendous earning potential.

At the Ministry, they are leading the charge to strengthen the linkages between tourism and other sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and entertainment, and in so doing encourage every Jamaican to play their part in improving the country’s tourism product, sustaining investment, and modernizing and diversifying the sector to foster growth and job creation for fellow Jamaicans. The Ministry sees this as critical to Jamaica’s survival and success and has undertaken this process through an inclusive approach, which is driven by the Resort Boards, through wide-scale consultation.

Recognizing that a collaborative effort and a committed partnership between the public and private sectors will be needed to achieve set targets, central to the Ministry’s plans is maintaining and nurturing its relationship with all key stakeholders. In so doing, it is believed that with the Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development as a guide and the National Development Plan – Vision 2030 as a benchmark – the Ministry’s goals are achievable for the benefit of all Jamaicans.

More news about Jamaica

#rebuildingtravel

MEDIA CONTACT:  

Corporate Communications Division 

Ministry of Tourism  

64 Knutsford Boulevard 

Kingston 5 

Telephone: 920-4924,  

Fax: 906-019 

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