KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett is set to travel to San Francisco, California, this week to engage in strategic meetings with American technology mega-companies Google, Airbnb and Uber Technologies Inc.
The meetings are in tandem with two of the five strategic pillars of the Ministry – building new products and fostering new partnerships; and will also be used to promote the UNWTO, GOJ, World Bank Conference on Jobs & Inclusive Growth: Partnerships for Sustainable Tourism, scheduled for November 27 – 29, at the Montego Bay Convention Centre.
Executives at Airbnb – a trusted community marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world online– extended an invitation to Minister Bartlett to participate in strategic meetings and to also tour their headquarters in San Francisco on Wednesday August 23.
The meeting will advance discussions regarding an MOU, which was signed with Airbnb in December 2016, to augment and drive growth within the tourism industry. Special focus will also be placed on the possible participation of Airbnb as a sponsor and presenter at the upcoming global conference.
The Minister will also meet with Senior Executives at the headquarters of Google on Thursday August 24. While there, he will get an overview of how Google generally works with tourism boards and ministries worldwide. This includes search trends about the island and how Google can: analyze the data; leverage external and public online tools; and outline digital best practices on how to use the power of data to attract more tourists more efficiently.
Bartlett will later meet with senior representatives from Uber Technologies Inc – a ridesharing technology company headquartered in San Francisco which operates in 633 cities worldwide.
The Minister will be joined by Senior Advisor/ Communication Strategist, Delano Seiveright and Jamaica’s Honorary Consul to Los Angeles, Lorna Mae Johnson. He is expected to return to the island on August 27, 2017.
