Tourism Minister to Meet with Tour Operators in London

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica; September 26, 2018:  Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett departed the island yesterday to attend the Jamaica Travel Market (JTM) in London. This trip forms part of the Ministry’s new strategy to aggressively target new and traditional markets, to attain double-digit growth and promote Jamaica as the ideal winter tourism destination.

The Minister and his delegation will also take the opportunity to meet with top tour operators in the UK to share exciting resort developments and new offerings.

The JTM is being organised by the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) for the third time, to showcase Jamaica as a premiere destination. It provides the ideal B2B platform for British tour operators and agents, primarily, to meet with Jamaican suppliers and partners directly.

“This important JTB event continues to grow from strength to strength.  It is so important that we regularly come together to strategically identify what the consumer passion points are and what drives people to Jamaica so that we can deliver these things to them,” said Minister Bartlett.

The JTM will offer a chance for buyers, planners, suppliers and agents to network and participate in workshops, with the aim of gaining new business. The JTB will also host an event focusing on Jamaica’s most unique, top-end hotels and resorts. 

The meetings with key international stakeholders across the world, has already shown some positive results. The Minister shared that so far that there will be 1.3 million seats for this winter, which is the largest number of seats the country has ever had.

A breakdown of the seats show that there will be 870,000 seats from America, an increase of 38,000 over last year; 370,000 out of Canada, an increase of 43,000 over the corresponding period last year; 25,000 seats out of Latin America, which is 5,000 more than the previous year; and 10,000 from the Caribbean.

Minister Bartlett will be accompanied by Mr. Donovan White, Director of Tourism, and will return to the island on September 30, 2018.  A full report of the tour will be presented in November 2018.