KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett and his South African counterpart, Hon. Patricia de Lille, met yesterday (April 3) to discuss building a cooperation framework to make tourism for both countries a key driver of economic development.
“Jamaica welcomes the potential for collaboration, particularly in the field of tourism. This is an industry that can be transformative, socially and economically, so we want to leverage tourism for the full benefit of our respective countries. Both Jamaica and South Africa are leaders in sustainable tourism, so together we have a lot of ideas and best practices to share,” noted Minister Bartlett.
The tourism ministers met on the margins of the African Tourism Investment Summit, currently underway in Cape Town, South Africa, under the theme: “Revitalizing Investment in Sustainable Tourism on the African Continent”, where Mr. Bartlett participated in a ministerial roundtable with government ministers, finance executives and administrators from South Africa, Botswana, Spain and Sierra Leone.
The two nations also agreed to further cooperation in the areas of human capital development, particularly training, and the building out of investment options to have South African investors look at product development in Jamaica. Minister Bartlett said noted, “Opportunities abound for investment in Jamaica’s tourism industry, so we welcome this interest from South Africa”.
Hon. Edmund Bartlett
With regard to air connectivity, the tourism ministers discussed prospects for introducing new flight services between the two counties. “South African Airlines, Africa’s leading airline, is currently focused on continental Africa. However, post-COVID, the airline intends to re-enter the US and UK markets. With our airline partner, Delta, flying directly into Cape Town both airlines can codeshare to facilitate the movement of traffic from South Africa through Atlanta to Kingston and Montego Bay,” Minister Bartlett explained.
Relationship Building
“I look forward to building out the relationship with tour operators and travel agents in South Africa to get the tourism traffic moving,” he added. The African market of 1.3 billion people is being eyed as the next big visitor source market for Jamaica as the industry seeks to diversify beyond traditional markets in North America and Europe.
Ministers Bartlett and de Lille also discussed establishing a satellite Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) at the University of Johannesburg. Mr. Bartlett noted that the University of the West Indies, Mona, where the GTRCMC is headquartered, and the University of Johannesburg “have already forged an academic partnership so this will be a good fit. It will pave the way for the two institutions to work together to develop policy and conduct relevant research on destination preparedness, management and recovery.” The centre will serve Southwest Africa.
