MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica – Underscoring the significance of tourism to Jamaica’s financial life, Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon Andrew Holness has introduced that strategic steps are being taken to reinforce the Jamaica’s tourism picture and model as a vacationer vacation spot.
Chairman of the Tourism Linkages Community and Government Chairman of Sandals Resorts Worldwide, Adam Stewart (left); Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon Andrew Holness (centre) and Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett pause for the lenses on the Sandals Jamaica Love gross sales occasion, which showcased Sandals and Seashores as genuine Caribbean resorts, on the Montego Bay Conference Centre on Wednesday, October 16, 2024.
“So much is being mentioned about Jamaica, and the messaging about Jamaica can at occasions be dissonant,” he mentioned, elaborating that, “Jamaica solar, sea and sand, Jamaica no downside, lovely seashores, however but you’ve gotten what I describe as noise within the setting that may take away from that message,” the Prime Minister mentioned.
Addressing a historic mega showcase, dubbed the Sandals Jamaica Love gross sales occasion, with some 1,000 journey advisors, firm prime administration and private and non-private sector stakeholders on the Montego Bay Conference Centre (MBCC) Thrusday (October 17), Prime Minister Holness mentioned: “Each time that occurs it will be important that you simply look not simply at what’s being mentioned about you, however we should be very clear about what we’re saying about ourselves.”
Along with solar, sea and sand, he said that there was a want for Jamaica to be recognized for security; safety; sustainability and seamlessness; service and satisfaction. “What we’re attempting to do is so as to add depth to our product, add extra dimensions to it, and Jamaica has the uncooked supplies to do it. We now have to be very strategic and deliberate in getting it performed,” he assured. He felt that “the investments that we’re making in our nation are on the level the place they are going to begin to yield even larger outcomes than the trouble that we’ve put in.”
Stressing the importance of the initiative, Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett lauded the journey advisors for making tourism the primary financial exercise in Jamaica during the last 30 years, including that the sector has grown constantly yearly on the charge of three p.c each year, larger than the gross home product (GDP) charge of development.
Garth Sinclair, aka “Necktie Gentleman” reveals off his talent with the coconut on the Sandals Jamaica Love gross sales occasion which showcased Sandals and Seashores resorts on Wednesday, October 16, 2024, because the genuine Caribbean resorts of alternative. Sinclair has been promoting coconuts for the previous 43 years.
Jamaica’s Tourism picture
Elaborating on the restoration and development of tourism post-COVID, Minister Bartlett instructed the journey advisors that international tourism was at a file excessive in relation to travellers and earnings and that “Jamaica, due to you’ll make new information too; small increment nevertheless it’s vital. We’re going to shut this 12 months at 4.3 million guests, the very best in our historical past, and earn US$4.5 billion.”
He additionally projected that subsequent 12 months “we are going to hit our goal of 5 million guests incomes US$5 billion for the individuals of Jamaica” and expressed because of the journey advisors “for enabling us to succeed in that threshold, for enabling us to now have 175,000 direct staff and a few 350,000 staff throughout Jamaica who’re related with tourism not directly or induced, and that represents 24 p.c of the workforce of Jamaica.”
