Tourism Minister Meets with Key Partners Abroad

• Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, has noted that Jamaica remains a safe destination and wants to reassure Jamaica’s tourism interests of this. He highlighted that a key factor is its Tourism Resilience Corridors, which have a low infection rate of less than 1.0%. 
• Jamaica’s tourism product remains strong and is indeed top of mind, despite the challenges. As a result, efforts will be made to therefore, continue to drive the marketing arrangements to minimize any possible fallout. 
• Jamaica’s safety standards and protocols are highly celebrated worldwide and were key to it being able to welcome over 1.0Mn visitors since reopening its borders. Further, efforts have been ramped up to ensure that tourism workers are fully vaccinated, and much success has been achieved from this initiative. 
• The Minister further noted that for one of America’s biggest airlines and a long-standing partner of Jamaica, Southwest Airlines, their flight operations into Montego Bay in coming weeks and months are expected to be very close to 2019 pre-pandemic record levels, signaling increased demand for destination Jamaica by US travellers. 
• With an increase in visitor arrivals and revenue both critical to Jamaica’s post-COVID-19 economic recovery, Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, is currently overseas having key meetings with major investors and sector players. Meetings in Canada will focus on marketing and will include all key partners, such as Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing, Transat and Swoop. They will also meet with tour operators, tourism investors, trade and mainstream media and key diaspora stakeholders.

(Source: JIS News)