Jamaica’s Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, is embarking on a global marketing tour to boost visitor arrivals.
His first port of call is the United Kingdom this weekend when he will join Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon. Olivia Grange in a series of activities to celebrate Jamaica’s 60th anniversary of independence.
He will then head to New York to promote brand Jamaica on the USA’s Northeastern Seaboard, taking in New Jersey, Connecticut, extending to Boston.
Minister Bartlett said: “We then hit the new market of the Middle East. We’re meeting with all the mega airlines, including Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, S.A.L. and we’re going over to Riyadh as well to meet with King Khalid, their big aviation company, which wants to open 225 new gateways and we want Jamaica to be in that.”
His schedule also includes a meeting with representatives of Royal Jordanian Airlines, as part of his vision to establish Jamaica as the hub for the Middle Eastern market for the Caribbean and the Americas.
The promotional tour will also visit Africa, Europe and Latin America. At the end, Minister Bartlett expects to have agreements signed for an additional 8,000 new hotel rooms in Jamaica.
Yesterday Bartlett welcomed the start of construction on the RIU Aquarelle. The Spanish hotel chain is the first foreign investor to break ground for a hotel construction since the reopening of Jamaica’s tourism sector after the pandemic.
The tourism minister also lauded RIU as the country’s largest foreign investor in the tourism industry.
“And, with the groundbreaking today of this 700 room, it makes you definitely the largest foreign investor in tourism with 3,000 rooms and employing in excess of 2,000,” Bartlett said.
Earlier this year, Bartlett also welcomed the launch of a new strategic initiative from Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts-owners, Grupo Piñero, in the Caribbean.
Last year Jamaica was voted ‘World’s Leading Family Destination’, ‘World’s Leading Wedding Destination’, ‘Caribbean’s Leading Destination’ and ‘Caribbean’s Leading Tourist Board’ by voters of World Travel Awards.
World Travel Awards Caribbean & North America Gala Ceremony 2022 will be taking place at Sandals Montego Bay on 14 June 2022. Free Conference will also be taking place.
