MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica – After several riveting presentations by an impressive cadre of local, regional and international experts, the 6th staging of the Tourism Outlook Seminar (TOS 2014) has been hailed by participants as a tremendous success.
The seminar was hosted by Jamaica’s Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment, the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) and the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) in association with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
The seminar seeks to enable tourism partners to share ideas, examine best practices and discuss strategies for advancing tourism. Staged from November 20 to 21 at the Montego Bay Convention Centre the seminar was held under the theme, “Tourism: Enhancing Social and Economic Impact.” It attracted over 250 delegates, including a wide cross section of tourism stakeholders including hoteliers, owners of attractions, government officials and university students.
Veteran hotelier and General Manager of Sunset Beach Resort & Spa, Evatt Bloomfield, considered the seminar a success, citing that it was “quite instructive and informative.” He got from it “information that I think was very enlightening, which certainly will help me as a hotel manager in looking at various aspects of my operations, such as access to market channels.”
He notes that a critical consideration was the session on disaster risk management. That session, titled “The Management of Natural and Man-made Crises” had a panel of experts that included the Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), Jamaica’s Ronald Jackson; Assistant US Attorney from the Department of Justice, Jared Strauss who focussed on cyber crime; emergency and crisis management expert, Miguel Rico Diener and the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s Communication Specialist, Johnson JohnRose.
While commending the panellists Mr. Bloomfield said, “while many of us have been treating with these issues over the decades and have it ingrained, it’s always good to have a fresh perspective as we become more aware of and in tune with not only the challenges but the channels that are best used in mitigation.”
Independent Consultant, Tourism Educator and Adjunct Lecturer at the University of the West Indies, UWI, Western Jamaica Campus, Margaret Lawrence said, “as someone who has been in tourism for so long, I think this has been a very interesting seminar with lots of information, lots to take home, I am really very happy that I came.”
For UWI Mona student, Rochelle Gordon “it was really informative” and fellow student, Kay Williams agreed, adding, “it was a good seminar; it was informative.”
She was particularly interested in the presentation by UNWTO Regional Director for the Americas, Carlos Vogeler on “Enhancing Competitiveness through Travel Facilitation.”
“I leant a lot about the aspects of data being collected by them, how it relates to the Caribbean, and how the ministry here can use that data to better inform their marketing strategy,” she divulged.
