KINGSTON, Jamaica; November 28, 2022: Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett is heading a team of Caribbean tourism officials to Saudi Arabia to cement a major multi-destination tourism arrangement with leading airlines in the Middle East.

Mr. Bartlett who left the island on the weekend, will also be a key panellist during a high-level discussion on “Enhancing Our Resilience” at the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Global Summit being held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from November 28 – December 1, 2022,

Minister Bartlett said on his trip to the Middle East, he will be co-ordinating a group of Caribbean Ministers meeting with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Airlines in Riyadh, which is being facilitated by Minister of Tourism for Saudi Arabia, His Excellency Ahmed Al Khateeb. The GCC owns some 13 airlines with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia dominating the market.

“The purpose of this engagement is to bring the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) market into the Caribbean. This is a dream that we’ve had and a programme that I’ve worked on for a number of years to build multi-destination tourism and to enable new markets from the far-flung areas to come into the Caribbean,” Mr. Bartlett divulged.

He added that the intention was to have the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay serve as a hub for these airlines and from there distribute to the rest of the region.

Pointing out that this will be the first time that any Caribbean team will be meeting with travel partners in the Middle East for the purpose of attracting new visitors to the region, Minister Bartlett said they will also be meeting with a number of tour operators, travel agents and other airlines.

As one of his assignments at the WTTC Global Summit Mr. Bartlett will also chair a task force on global tourism workers employment arrangement. “The purpose of this task force is to build out a global charter for employment among tourism workers coming out of the recession fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic,” he disclosed.

Stating that there was an awareness that many things had changed, Minister Bartlett said “we recognise that we have to develop a new global tourism labour arrangement that will be more attractive to workers and will enable a more sustainable working ecosystem for the tourism industry.”

Mr Bartlett will participate in the panel discussion on “Enhancing our Resilience” on Tuesday, November 29. He joins Hon. Sylvestre Radegonde, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tourism, Seychelles; Dan Richards, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Global Rescue; Robin Ingle, Chief Executive Officer, Ingle International Inc; Debbie Flynn, Managing Partner, Global Travel Practice Leader, FINN Partners with Arnie Weissmann, Editor in Chief, Travel Weekly as moderator.

The session will explore how the global travel and tourism sector can “use the learnings from COVID-19 to better prepare for crises ranging from climate change to biodiversity loss.”

Several other far-reaching topics of utmost importance to tourism globally, will be explored during the summit, including Travel for a Better Future; To Recovery and Beyond; The Return of Travel and Capitalizing on Untapped Opportunities.

Minister Bartlett is slated to return to the island on December 2, 2022.

MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA; November 25, 2022: Tourism Minister Hon. Edmund Bartlett says that Jamaica's natural resources and geographic location make the island well-positioned to be a leader in the health and wellness tourism industry. He, therefore, called for greater investment to be made in the industry to ensure sustainable growth.

"We can move to build out the health and wellness industry. People are travelling to reclaim their youth, and they are more health conscious than ever before in tourism. What COVID-19 has done is emphasise the need for health and wellness," said Minister Bartlett.

"Jamaica, because of its geographical location and its geophysical features, stands in a good position to capture much of that movement for health and wellness that is now globally evident." "We must therefore invest in it," he added.

The Minister made these remarks yesterday (November 24) during the opening of the 4th annual Jamaica Health and Wellness Conference at the Montego Bay Convention Centre.

Industry trends have shown that many destinations throughout the world are becoming synonymous with health and healing, and this is even more so since the pandemic, with people travelling far and wide in search of health benefits, both real and promised.

This has led to the natural emergence of health and wellness tourism, whereby people will leave their home countries and travel to other destinations for reactive care, to restore their health, or for more proactive treatments to maintain their health. The Minister, therefore, urged business owners and bankers to look to the health and wellness industry for investments, as the demand for this niche industry has grown exponentially in the post-COVID era.

"I want to use this opportunity to appeal to our bankers and the capital market. But more so to our entrepreneurs, who should look at this option because now more than ever, the demand for health and wellness is at a premium in the world. Because the COVID pandemic harmed the market a little bit, with the market valued at 4.4 trillion dollars in 2019 and now on the rise to 2 trillion, let us stay right there and move with that curve with investments in health and wellness," said the Minister.

He also used the opportunity to announce that his ministry recently met with a team of investors to improve the offerings of two of the island’s natural mineral spas: Bath Fountain in St. Thomas and Milk River in Clarendon.

"We have two of the finest natural spas in the world: the bathing fountain and the milk river. Our enterprise team is working very hard on that. Last month we had a very important consultation with potential investors, and we are looking at divesting those two. We have good calls that are being made on it to transform those two into world-class products to drive more resources into Jamaica and greater revenue flows into the country," said Bartlett.

The Jamaica Health and Wellness Tourism Conference was organised by the Tourism Linkages Network, a department of the Tourism Enhancement Fund, over two days to strengthen linkages between the health and wellness sector and other productive sectors of the economy, particularly agriculture and manufacturing, while promoting and showcasing Jamaica’s unique health and wellness tourism offerings.

The Conference brings together leaders in the health and wellness tourism industry from Jamaica and around the world for one of the most important conferences on Jamaica’s tourism schedule.

KINGSTON, Jamaica; November 24, 2022: Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett has announced that between January and October of this year, farmers sold just under J$125 million of produce through the tourism Agri-Linkages Exchange (ALEX) online platform.

The Minister made this announcement yesterday (November 23) during the launch of the Agricultural Suppliers Food Safety Manual at Devon House, in Kingston.

"The Agri-Linkages Exchange project continues to be beneficial to the 1,200 farmers and 247 buyers who are registered on the platform, and the ALEX Centre continues to engage both farmers and hotels online, facilitated by a team of six Agri-Brokers," said Minister Bartlett.

"I am happy to report that between January and October of this year, just under J$125 million of produce was sold through the website," he added.

ALEX, which is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Tourism, through the Tourism Enhancement Fund, and the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), is the first online platform of its kind in the country. It brings hoteliers into direct contact with the farmers and, in turn, reduces leakages and helps Jamaica retain more of the economic benefits of tourism.

The platform, which can be found at www.agrilinkages.gov.jm, allows farmers to plan to adequately address seasonality in crops and provide information as it relates to the geographic location of specific crops. Registration is also facilitated on the portal.

The Minister also shared that the TEF has been enhancing strawberry farming through its Berry Farming Programme. He noted that 15 farmers are currently producing strawberries through funding from the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), and eight of them currently consistently supply the tourism sector.

These farmers sell between 30 and 40 percent of the strawberries they produce directly to the travel and hospitality industries. In contrast to the past, when all strawberries served in our hotels and restaurants had to be imported, this signifies a source of income for the growers and a savings in foreign exchange for the nation.

"Just to give you an idea of the revenue streams open to strawberry farmers, on average, farmers with one strawberry house currently sell strawberries at $800 per lb. to locals and $1,200 per lb. to retailers, and they are selling 30 lbs. of berries per week and earning spin-off income from selling over 200 strawberry suckers per month at $100 per sucker," said Bartlett.

The Minster also noted that "farmers with three or more strawberry houses" report that they are currently selling strawberries at $1,000 per pound farm gate to hotels, purveyors, and supermarkets. They reap an average of 1,600 pounds per month, which brings them a revenue of $1,600,000. Their annual revenue amounts to $11,200,000 for the next 6–7 months, with approximately $2,794,000 going into operating expenses.

The Agricultural Suppliers Food Safety Manual that was launched by the TEF sets out procedures that adhere to international standards and was developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, the Bureau of Standards Jamaica, the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA), tourism stakeholders, and the Ministry of Health and Wellness.

With the input and full backing of these organizations, it is expected that the manual will serve as an information resource for farmers, agri-processors, and manufacturers who supply the tourism sector.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Friday, November 18, 2022:  The long-established relationship between Jamaica and Canada, its second largest tourism market, has been strengthened with an agreement reached yesterday to enter a new era of cooperation and collaboration in tourism, resilience and sustainability.

Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett and his Canadian counterpart, Hon. Randy Boissonnault, agreed on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) when they met on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Hon. Boissonnault is Canada’s first full-fledged Minister of Tourism but also holds the portfolio of Associate Minister of Finance. Two other key stakeholders in the Parliament Hill meeting were Jamaica’s High Commissioner to Canada, Her Excellency Sharon Miller and Canadian Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maninder Sidhu.

The two ministers agreed on an MOU to share best practices and build capacity in training and human capital development, marketing, investment and the expansion of tourism resilience and sustainability programmes and projects.

Although tourism is Canada’s second largest export and growing, Minister Boissonnault said the industry was never seen as being critical. However, with a changing paradigm, it was now being pursued with new insights and a commitment made to funding and support for a meaningful MOU, recognizing the key role that Jamaica and Canada can play in strengthening global tourism.

The renewed partnership has been welcomed by Minister Bartlett who said Minister Boissonnault was a supporter of the new tourism that has been emerging since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and being the first full-fledged tourism minister for his country was an indication of how important tourism was now being seen.

Minister Bartlett elaborated on the MOU, stating that it will focus heavily on building the capacity of tourism workers and stakeholders of the industry “to provide a greater level of service, but more so to be able to pivot and to respond to different challenges and crises that may appear from time to time.”

An Employment Charter being developed to attract and retain tourism workers has received the backing of the Canadian tourism minister who indicated that he wanted to play an active role in the dialogue relating to the charter leading up to its promulgation at a later date.

“We looked at the wider question of resilience and sustainability, in particular the work of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) and Canada will support the Global Tourism Resilience agenda and participate in the Global Tourism Resilience Day activities to take placed in February 2023 at the University of the West Indies,” said Minister Bartlett. Satellite centres of the GTRCMC are to be established at Carlton University in Ottawa, in addition to the one that already exists at George Brown University in Toronto.

The MOU also calls for exchanges to be initiated with Carlton University, George Brown College, and other key technical institutions that are tourism and hospitality oriented.

Minister Bartlett disclosed that Canada and Jamaica will collaborate on a number of initiatives he did not identify but stated that “This was a great encounter. Minister Boissonnault was so happy to meet and has committed full backing of our initiatives.”

Canada and Jamaica have enjoyed a longstanding relationship spanning over 60 years. Canada is also one of the preferred countries for settlement by migrating Jamaicans, with some 350,000 making it their home. 

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Tuesday, November 15, 2022: Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett has reported success in increasing airline seats out of Canada, Jamaica’s second largest visitor market. “So far, we have been successful in commitments that will see the number of airline seats at a record 283,000 out of Canada to Jamaica this winter; 26,000 more seats than was recorded in 2019, pre-COVID-19,” he announced this afternoon. These are from major travel partners such as Air Canada Vacations, WestJet, Transat and Sunwing.

Speaking from Canada, Minister Bartlett said, “The marketing programme for Canada is now in full gear” and supported by Director of Tourism, Donovan White and the Jamaica Tourist Board’s Regional Director for Canada, Angella Bennett, “we are having meetings with our airline partners and tour operators.”

Mr. Bartlett’s working visit to Canada with a number of senior tourism officials will see them engaged in a series of activities between various segments of the market that take in Toronto, Calgary, Winnipeg, Montreal and Ottawa and, he has reported, “we are satisfied that the market has bounced back post-COVID.”

He said the 283,000 seats, “will go a long way in bringing us back to our levels of over 300,000 visitors that we had during the immediate pre-COVID period but the objective is to get to 400,000 where we were in 2010.”

The visit is also being used to launch the JTB’s new “Come Back” campaign and Minister Bartlett contends that “with added inventory coming in Jamaica and a new thrust in terms of the quality product and recognition of the value proposition that Jamaica offers, we are optimistic that in 2023/24 we will see a full recovery of the Canadian market to the levels that we were in the best of times in 2010.”

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Monday, November 14, 2022: Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett and a team of senior tourism officials will meet with travel partners and investors in Canada, Jamaica’s second largest visitor market, in an effort to increase arrivals to the destination and foster further investment in the tourism industry.

“While Jamaica’s post-pandemic tourism recovery has been remarkable and we are anticipating a strong winter season, we cannot take our current successes for granted.  We are therefore doubling down on our efforts to increase arrivals out of our main source markets like Canada by engaging our major travel partners like Air Canada Vacations, WestJet, Transat and Sunwing,” said Minister Bartlett.  

“We are also strengthening our marketing effort with the launch of the Jamaica’s new advertising campaign, which will heighten Brand Jamaica’s profile in the tourism space,” the Tourism Minister noted. To this end, the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) will launch its new “Come Back” campaign to tour operators, travel agents and trade media  in both Toronto and Montreal.

While in Canada, Minister Bartlett will participate in meetings with key tourism investors as well as give the keynote address at the Jamaica Tourism Investment Forum, which will be held at the Toronto Trade Board Centre on November 16. The event, which have presentation on Jamaica’s tourism outlook and  investment opportunities, will be attended by Canada’s A-list of bankers, real estate brokers and industry companies looking at investment opportunities internationally.

Minister Bartlett noted, “Jamaica’s tourism is ripe for investment with a myriad of opportunities in various areas, including accommodation, attractions, travel technology, agro-tourism, green projects, nutraceuticals, manufacturing as well as supporting infrastructure that improves the visitor experience. We are therefore encouraging players in the international market to explore the many investment opportunities available in the  industry.“

On November  17, Minister Bartlett will attend a  Global Tourism and Resilience Management Forum at Carlton University in Ottawa, which will be attended by university’s faculty and post graduate students.   The engagement is an opportunity to explore the establishment of a satellite centre of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) at the university similar to the one established at Toronto’s George Brown College.

Minister Bartlett left the island today, November 14, 2022, will return on Saturday, November 19, 2022.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Friday, November 11, 2022:  Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett’s dream for the development of multi-destination tourism travel within the Caribbean is now being realized with the inauguration on Monday, November 14, of direct non-stop air service between Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.

The region’s newest airline, Arajet, will take to the skies with direct flights between Santo Domingo and Kingston as of Monday, reducing airfare from an average US$800 to US$252 round-trip and travel time from more than 20 hours (via Miami) to under two hours.

Welcoming the service, Minister Bartlett described it as “a real milestone achievement of air connectivity,” adding, “the importance of this is the fulfilment of the hope of what true multi-destination tourism is all about. It’s a dream that we have had.”  He was speaking today at a press briefing at the offices of the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) in New Kingston,

He singled out founder and chief executive officer of Arajet, Victor Pacheco, for enabling the linkage with Jamaica and other Caribbean islands with an affordable and timely air service. Mention was also made of the roles played by a number of government ministers and other interests in fulfilment of the new air service.

“The decision to enable improved connectivity between the Dominican Republic and Jamaica is part of a broader and wider strategy of integrating the Caribbean more and also of creating backward connections between Central America and South America. We have been working at bedding that market for the last 15 years,” said Minister Bartlett as he named other airlines that have been engaged in discussions.

The Caribbean dream is shared by Mr. Pacheco and the Dominican Republic’s Ambassador to Jamaica, H.E. Angie Martinez.  Speaking on the Zoom platform from his office in the Dominican Republic, Mr. Pacheco said Minister Bartlett’s vision of a multi-destination framework was correct and urged him to continue promoting this concept “because this is the only way that we can truly democratize air travel.” He also stated that “I like the Minister’s vision so much, I might explore setting up a base there.”

He said he believed the service being offered by his company “will be very important for tourism growth, commercial growth and also to support entrepreneurs in the new age that the world is living in. He said Arajet was the first company in Latin America to be launching an airline with the new, most technologically advanced 737 MAX airplanes with 40% less pollution, more fuel efficiency and significantly reduced emissions of carbon monoxide.

The airline plans to launch 54 routes out of Santo Domingo and while starting in Jamaica with twice weekly flights to Kingston, Montego Bay will be added subsequently. “In the next 30 years, we’ll be in the middle of the biggest air traffic growth that the world has seen and we need to take advantage of it,” he argued.

Ambassador Martinez termed the new air service as “truly a game-changer in our bilateral relations with Jamaica." She said the connection between both countries was both a necessity and a dream come true.

She believed the cheap airfare and significantly reduced travel time will result in an uptick in visitors moving between both countries, which share similar cultures.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Friday, November 11, 2022: As the global marketplace wrestles with the 40% GDP loss in tourism and travel brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett has called for a new tourism investment thrust to recover from the fallout.

His call comes against the fact that prior to the pandemic outbreak in 2019, tourism accounted for 10% of global GDP, provided 11% of jobs and more than 20% of foreign direct investment (FDI), especially in highly tourism-dependent regions like the Caribbean.

However, in 2021, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) estimated tourism’s contribution to GDP had fallen to 6% and jobs down 333 million from approximately 400 million.  Tourism expenditure was US$9 trillion resulting from 1.4 billion tourists travelling across the world for vacations.

In one of his several presentations to major tourism and travel stakeholders at the International Tourism Investment Conference held in the margins of the annual World Travel Market (WTM) in London on Wednesday (November 9), Minister Bartlett indicated that more than 70 million jobs were lost, and investment will assist greatly in restoring and creating new ones.

He referenced his home destination, Jamaica, as a country which has recovered very well in visitor arrivals and stopovers, with increased revenue intake. His argument was further emboldened by the fact that Jamaica currently is on the verge of harnessing new investments from more than 12,000 new hotel rooms over the next three years, which together with new attractions, will bring sustainable growth to the local economy.

Minister Bartlett also called for industry investment to focus more on the supply side of the tourism equation, such as food and beverages, household goods, cultural products, furnishings and renewable energy, citing these as keys inputs which drive the consumption patterns of tourism and enable a higher level of earnings retention in the local economies.

He posited that the new tourism investment thrust must impact the environment, the social development of community and the economic well-being of the country. This he contends, is the formula for sustainability and resilience in the very important tourism sector.

LONDON, UK, Tuesday, November 09, 2022:  A “paradigm shift” in the way the global travel industry attracts, retains and adjusts staff amid post-COVID-19 shortages is being urged.

To this end, a tourism workforce initiative underpinned by a charter focusing on the growth and retention of employees has been unveiled in a bid to combat declining workforce numbers.

Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett unveiled the cross-sector collaborative group at World Travel Market (WTM) in London, United Kingdom (UK), at a time when hospitality, cruise and aviation are being affected by a “significant number” of 44 million global tourism workers not returning after the pandemic.

The working group believes there is a need to increase the annual growth rate to more than 30%.  It will focus on key areas such as wages, working conditions, career paths, empowerment and communication that need immediate improvement.

Quantifiable annual targets will be set as well as “steadfast” sector commitments towards funding the activities.  Enhanced global mentoring and employment programmes may be provided through a global portal.  

Minister Bartlett noted, “The tourism industry needs to recover its attractiveness to workers and should undergo a deep and thorough analysis as to the factors which gave rise to this situation. Tourism, pre-pandemic has not been the best employer and many view our sector as low paying, low skilled and seasonal, offering little job security and social security. Hence, the need for a new charter to reimagine the labour market relations, the re- architecture of the social contract between the workers and the employers of the industry.”

The negative employment is threatening the integrity of the promise to offer a seamless and exceptional experience for visitors to destinations, according to Bartlett.

Spearheaded by Travel Weekly parent Jacobs Media Group (JMG)-backed Resilience Council, which Bartlett co-chairs, and the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC), the cross-sector collaborative working group is being formed with participants across the industry.

LONDON, UK, Tuesday, November 09, 2022: Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett met with Cuba's Minister of Tourism, Juan Carlos García Granda and other senior Cuban officials at the World Travel Market (WTM) in London, United Kingdom (UK), on Tuesday (November 8) to discuss the continued push to reimagine Caribbean destinations and move to cement multi-destination tourism.

This as more and more destinations seek to promote experiential travel and optimize visitors’ experiences. Multi-destination tourism is a unique approach to tourism that enables a tourist to visit and enjoy the offerings of multiple destinations during one trip, at one cost.

Beyond that Minister Bartlett noted that he will be leading a delegation of Caribbean tourism ministers to Saudi Arabia later this month to engage in a series of high-level discussions with major airlines and other leading travel and tourism investment stakeholders in the Middle East as part of efforts to broaden the scope and horizons of Caribbean tourism.

This forms part of activities surrounding the 22^nd World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) Global Summit which will take place in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from 28 November – 1 December 2022. The Global Summit is a leading event in the travel and tourism sector, bringing together the most powerful voices within the arena to address and redesign the priorities for the future. The summit will provide an opportunity to engage with the leaders of the sector as well as to highlight national policies in support of a sustainable future for tourism.

Jamaica is represented amongst thousands of participants in the annual WTM London, which showcases offerings from the biggest travel destinations, accommodation suppliers, airlines and tour operators.