Bartlett to Lead International Engagements to Increase Winter Arrivals to Jamaica
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, and a high-level team of tourism officials, will be engaging in a series of meetings with key international stakeholders.
This forms part of the Ministry’s strategy to aggressively target new and traditional markets, to attain double-digit growth and promote Jamaica as the ideal winter tourism destination.
The Minister, who left the island yesterday, made this announcement during a press briefing at the Ministry of Tourism’s New Kingston office on September 05, 2018.
“Together with the Director of Tourism and other representatives of the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) we will be meeting with hoteliers, tour operators, airlines and other key strategic tourism partners in a bid to boost arrivals to the island,” said the Minister.
Marketing Efforts In Canada
He shared that increased marketing efforts in the Canadian market have proven to be successful following a decline in arrivals from the country in 2015.
“The Canadian market has not just rebounded over the last three years, but has exceeded expectations on our side. We are seeing new airlift arrangements coming together for this winter and beyond, which is going to see Canada coming together, back to 400,000 visitor arrivals per year that we left a few years ago. We are excited about that, because I believe North America still holds the key for the growth potential for Jamaica,” said the Minister.
He went on to share that “the trajectory is at the moment, that the seats out of Canada will be a record. We are also seeing from preliminary reports from the US, an increase in every single major carrier from the US – American Airlines, South West, Frontier and others are adding flights.”
EXPO Japan
The Minister and his team will also be participating in the tourism EXPO Japan, which is slated for September 20-23 in Tokyo, as part of the Ministry’s efforts to re-engage this market on a more sustained basis and grow visitor traffic to Jamaica. This expo is a premier event for travel brands serious about capturing a share of the lucrative Japanese outbound market.
“Two decades ago, Jamaica received upwards of 20,000 Japanese visitors per annum but that has since declined to roughly 2,000 per annum, due in part to a long economic slowdown in Japan and other factors.
Outbound connections that Jamaica has with Delta, through Naruto is significant. Delta has a number of rotations through Atlanta and they fly directly into Tokyo. That connection will help to re-engage this market,” said the Minister.
Jamaica Travel Market in London
The Minister and his team will head to London later this month, for the JTB’s Jamaica Travel Market in London.
During this two-day event, the focus is solely on Jamaica and it provides the ideal B2B platform for British tour operators and agents to meet with Jamaican suppliers and partners directly.
“This important JTB event continues to grow from strength to strength. It is so important that we regularly come together to strategically identify what the consumer passion points are and what drives people to Jamaica so that we can deliver these things to them,” he said.
The tour started in North America last week, with a team headed by Director of Tourism Donovan White.
A full report of the tour which ends in October, will be presented in November 2018.
