KINGSTON, Jamaica; December 09, 2019:  Tourism Minister, Hon Edmund Bartlett is currently in Kenya to conclude discussions for the establishment of the first Satellite Centre for the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC), at the Kenyatta University.

Speaking at a meeting earlier today with Kenyan officials, at the offices of Minister of Tourism and Wildlife of Kenya, Hon Najib Balala, Minister Bartlett said, “I am very excited that we are very close to opening the first satellite centre for the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre in Kenya. We will head to Kathmandu in Nepal on January 1 to launch the second one. There are also a number of others, which will be launched in 2020.”

The Satellite Centre will focus on regional issues and will share information in Nano time with the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre. It will then function as a think tank to develop possible solutions.

The Kenyatta University will collaborate with The University of the West Indies, and by extension, the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre — that is tasked with assessing, forecasting, mitigating and managing risks related to tourism resilience, caused by various disruptive factors.

The universities are then expected to sign an MOU, which includes the facilitation of a strategic partnership as it relates to Research and Development; Policy Advocacy and Communication Management; Programme/Project Design and Management and Training and Capacity Building.

Minister Balala expressed excitement at the opportunity to collaborate with the GTRCMC, located in Jamaica, as he believes the agreement will be mutually beneficial to both nations.

He also shared that he would, “hold the University’s hand and try to find ways on how we can resolve these issues – from funding but also implementation. They are beyond the tragedies; some of them are beneficial to us, not just as a country but also as a Ministry.”

Executive Director of the GTRCMC, Professor Lloyd Waller added, “The establishment of satellite Centres will help to create a type of global think tank connected through digital technologies which will be able to share information, collaborate and resolve critical issues through a network of global experts.”

Minister Bartlett will later have bilateral talks with Minister Balala, who is Chair of the UNWTO Executive Council in his capacity as Chair of the Commission of the Americas regarding the Global Summit on Innovation Resilience and Crisis Management scheduled to be hosted by Jamaica on May 21-23, 2020. Jamaica will also host the 65th Regional meeting of the Americas.

The Minister is also in Kenya on official duties with Prime Minister Holness and other government officials. In this capacity, he will attend the 9th ACP Summit of Heads of State and Government, along with Prime Minister Holness and Foreign Affairs Minister, Hon Kamina Johnson Smith.

The summit will look into ways of reducing, preventing and overcoming terrorism and insecurity to enhance development while also taking into consideration socioeconomic and cultural issues.

He will also meet with a group of private sector investors interested in Jamaica’s tourism product at a formal dinner hosted by Minister Balala on Tuesday night in Nairobi.

Tourism Minister, Hon Edmund Bartlett returns to the island on Thursday, December 12, 2019.

OCHO RIOS, St. Ann; December 3, 2019: Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett says Ocho Rios is gearing up to welcome 50,000 cruise ship passengers courtesy of the cruise line MSC Meraviglia.

MSC Cruise, an over 300 year old company, entered the cruise business in 1988 and is now the world’s largest privately-owned cruise line and brand market leader in Europe, South America and Southern Africa. 

Speaking at the welcome reception for the ship’s inaugural visit to Ocho Rios today, Minister Bartlett said, “With the additional call of the MSC Meraviglia, which holds 7200 passengers and crew, Jamaica’s cruise tourism is expected to end the year in a very strong position.

More importantly, this addition will see Ocho Rios welcoming 50,000 cruise ship passengers with 10 calls from now until April next year.”

The Meraviglia, which is a sophisticated combination of state of the art technology, design, comfort and practicality, joins Seaside, Divina and Armonia which have been visiting Ocho Rios and Falmouth.

“Jamaica’s cruise tourism will see a boost in arrivals and earnings in the next couple of years with more calls to all ports and the inclusion of Port Royal to the itinerary.

Within the context of reimagining the island’s tourism, we are now looking at cruise tourism specifically as to how we can build out more infrastructure and experiences to attract more visitors and retain more of the cruise dollar,” added Minister Bartlett.

Ocho Rios was just awarded the Caribbean’s leading cruise port at the World Travel Awards in Oman and recently won the Hospitality Jamaica award for the best resort town.

For the period January to October 2019, Ocho Rios has seen an 11.9 per cent increase in calls and 2.6 per cent in passenger arrivals, representing a passenger count of 450,000. Ocho Rios is also expected to see a 4% increase in passenger arrivals by the end of the year, making it the number one port for visitors and calls in the island.

KINGSTON, Jamaica; December 2, 2019: Tourism Minister, Hon Edmund Bartlett says Jamaica is in discussions with the Government of Peru to collaborate in areas such as destination marketing, gastronomy, sport and tourism resilience.  This is being done to further strengthen bilateral relations between Jamaica and Peru.

The Minister made this announcement during a breakfast meeting in Lima, Peru, earlier today with Peruvian officials and senior representatives from LATAM Airlines.

“Today Jamaica had a very fruitful discussion with officials in Peru about ways we can further strengthen our collaboration with them, now that we are about to welcome our first flight from their country to the Jamaica via LATAM Airlines,” said Minister Bartlett.  

The inaugural LATAM Airlines flight will commence service later today, between Lima, Peru, and Montego Bay, with three flights per week. This will increase the number of flights out of South America to 14, with COPA Airlines currently operating 11 weekly flights between Panama and Jamaica.

“We are very connected with many of the major legacy carriers with access to more than 200 gateways. The good news, which comes from this connectivity, is that visa arrangements are now different.

So the South Americans who want to come to us no longer have to worry about visas; we have a ‘visa-free regime’ operating with most South American countries, including Peru. This is a good arrangement and I think the timing is right,” said Minister Bartlett.

During the discussions, Minister Bartlett proposed that the two countries consider a joint marketing agreement to promote the destinations.  This arrangement would also include leveraging gastronomy offerings, as well as music and sport.

“We can also consider exploring the experiences of gastronomy of the two nations. We think there is hope for collaboration in gastronomy and for us to expand a range of offerings – perhaps a fusion.  Music and sport are also strong options with football and Reggae music being strong cultural products,” he said.

The Minister added that another critical area that could be considered is a collaboration in areas of tourism resilience and crisis management.   

“We must explore further, building our tourism resilience and innovation. We are agreeing to have the tourism school in Peru collaborating with Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre in Kingston, Jamaica,” said the Minister.

The Centre, officially launched in 2018, is tasked with creating, producing and generating toolkits, guidelines and policies to handle the recovery process following a disaster. The centre will also assist with preparedness, management and recovery from disruptions and/or crises that impact tourism and threaten economies and livelihoods.

Peru’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Hon. Édgar Vásquez Vela welcomed the idea of collaborating with Jamaica.

“This is a stepping point in order to improve and strengthen our bilateral relations; and tourism is a key activity in Jamaica and also should be a key activity in Peru. This is an activity that generates more income from outside Peru,” said Vásquez Vela.

He added, “We have put all our efforts in order to explore and take advantage of all our opportunities. We are working very hard in order to change the situation and put tourism as the first activity, because it is democratic and inclusive. In many cases, you do not need big resources, but good ideas.”

KINGSTON, Jamaica; November 28, 2019: Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett has announced that findings from the just concluded Tourism Working Group (TWG) report are ready and will be used to help shape a new architecture for the tourism subsectors.

The Tourism Working Group, established in July 2018 and lead by PricewaterhouseCoopers Senior Executive Wilfred Baghaloo, was set up to review a range of issues within the sector including the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA), work permits, ground transportation and entertainment, among others.

The intent of the report is to suggest the way forward for the industry and provide a series of recommendations for strong legislative and policy reforms.

Minister Bartlett, who made the announcement yesterday at a TWG meeting said, “We recognize that global changes in the industry have impacted the business arrangements for some of our indigenous players in various subsectors. The report has highlighted the need for us to retro fit and re-examine our own processes and see how our practices and models are faring against the new disruptive business models.”

The report includes over fifty recommendations that can assist in informing national policies to build stronger partnerships and support for Jamaican businesses.

“Since we established the TWG, there has been several key meetings with foreign and local stakeholders as well as research on other tourism destinations to understand their policy framework.

This is with a view to creating a new architecture that will help build capacity for our suppliers to compete more effectively in an ever changing industry so they can do more and earn more,” added Minister Bartlett. 

Co-Chairman of the TWG, Wilfred Baghaloo anticipates that “The next phase of the project will involve consultations among the various ministries and enactment of policies at the local level. Thereafter, there may be meetings with international representatives to discuss the way forward.”

The Minister noted that the findings would be reviewed thoroughly and a number of consultations would take place with relevant stakeholders before the findings are released to the public and any action is taken.

“We are happy that you were able to apply the level of rigour to the investigations which have now concluded with this document. We are excited to peruse it and look carefully on how we can apply some of the recommendations that you have made. We need to have further discussions with stakeholders, because we recognise that it is not going to be a one-glove fits all situation, but we certainly want to fit it right so that we protect the local sector, which is critical to us,” said Minister Bartlett.

He expressed gratitude to the team, which is chaired by Tourism Linkages Council head and hotelier Adam Stewart as well as prominent business leaders Michael McMorris and Godfrey Dyer; Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), President, Omar Robinson and Senior Executive, Nicola Madden-Greig; and President of the Jamaica Cooperative Automobile and Limousine Services (JCAL), Brian Thelwell.

Other members include Jamaica Vacations (JAMVAC), Chairman, Bert Wright; National Craft Traders and Producers Association, President, Melody Haughton-Adams; Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) Executive Director, Dr. Andrew Spencer and representatives from the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport; Ministry of Labour and Social Security; Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) and the Ministry of Tourism.

KINGSTON, Jamaica; November 27, 2019: Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett has announced that preliminary figures from the Jamaica Tourist Board indicate that the island has earned US$3.1 billion to date. The data also indicates that from January to October 2019, Jamaica welcomed 3.4 million visitors to the island.

“We are very proud to announce, that we have hit the US$3.1 billion mark for earnings. We had already broken the 3 million mark for arrivals, so we are on track to surpass our target,” said the Minister. 

He added that,” December is usually a strong month for us [Jamaica] and it begins the high season when the rates are higher. In all probability we will more than likely make our US$3.7 billion projection for this year and with a little luck we might be on the edge for US$4 billion.”

The Minister noted that this puts the island on track to surpass projections of the Tourism Ministry’s 5x5x5 growth strategy, which when proposed in 2016 was targeting increasing visitor arrivals to five million in five years and earning US$5 billion.

The strategy is utilising the five tourism pillars, which includes tapping into new markets, developing new products, promoting investments, building new partnerships and developing human capital.

“The market diversification programme that the Ministry has embarked on over the last three years, based on our 5x5x5 strategy, is going apace. We targeted South America as one of the major new frontiers that we are going to spend some time on and get some good returns.

“Already the returns are coming because we are up 23% in South America which is really strong. We have also been able to get 11 flights a week from COPA coming out of Panama for Kingston and Montego Bay,” said the Minister.

He added that he would be leading a small team over the weekend in Lima, to inaugurate the first direct flight from the destination to Montego Bay, Jamaica, by LATAM Airlines. The flight, which arrives on Monday, will begin a three-rotation programme by LATAM into Montego Bay.

The Minister made these announcements earlier today during a Tourism Working Group (TWG) Meeting hosted at his New Kingston Office.

The TWG was developed to assess various issues in Jamaica’s rapidly growing tourism sector and is headed by Prominent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) partner, Wilfred Baghaloo.

KINGSTON, Jamaica; November 26, 2019:  Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett says that the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre has been tasked with developing a tourism crisis communications strategy which will help Caribbean nations ‘build back better’ following a disaster.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of a Tourism Crisis Communications and Disaster Risk Management event yesterday at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, the Minister said, “In responding to the call to build tourism resilience in the Caribbean, I am very proud that the region’s first resilience centre was recently established at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus Jamaica.

“The Centre is going to focus heavily on crisis communication and will develop an official Tourism Crisis Communication Strategy. We believe that we have established ourselves to provide part of the institutional framework and the physical capacity that the region needs to implement and to have actualised some of the outcomes which we seek to have from our efforts,” he added. 

The facility, which is the first of its kind, will assist with preparedness, management and recovery from disruptions and/or crises that impact tourism and threaten sector-dependent economies and livelihoods.

It is focused on deliverables including the establishment of an academic journal on resilience and global disruptions, the drafting of a blueprint for resilience, the creation of a resilience barometer and establishment of an Academic Chair for resilience and innovation.  This is in keeping with the Centre’s mandate to create, produce and generate toolkits, guidelines and policies to guide the recovery process following a disaster.

“Building resilience will require a system-approach based on strengthening collaborations at the national, regional and international levels among tourism policymakers, lawmakers, tourism enterprises, NGOs, tourism workers, education and training institutions and general populations to reinforce institutional capacity to anticipate, coordinate, monitor and evaluate actions and programmes to lower risk factors,” said the Minister. 

While the Centre has been created to assist all tourism nations across the globe, the Minister shared that the Caribbean is particularly vulnerable because it is the most tourism dependent region in the world.

“The most recent economic data indicate that the livelihood of one in every four Caribbean residents is linked to tourism. While travel and tourism contributes to 15.2 % of the region’s GDP in general and over 25% of the GDP of more than half of the countries. In the case of the British Virgin Islands, tourism contributes to 98.5% of GDP. 

These figures underscore the importance of developing strategies for mitigating potential hazards that can destabilize tourism services in the region and cause long-term setback to sustainable growth and development,” he said.

During his presentation, the Minister announced that the Centre’s physical space is about 90% completed but is globally linked.

“Next week we go to Kenya to launch at the Kenyatta University, the first satellite centre for the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre and then we will head to Kathmandu in Nepal on the first of January to launch the second one. There are also a number of others, which will be launched in 2020,” he said.

The two-day event is being hosted by the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with the IDB’s Environment, Rural Development and Disaster Risk Management (RND) Division and their Caribbean Country Department. 

Over 50 local and regional experts in the field of tourism crisis management and communications and disaster risk management have participated in the event, which is taking place under the theme “Reinforcing Crisis Communication as a Critical Element of Caribbean Tourism Resilience and Disaster Risk Management.”

The event also forms part of part of the IDB’s series of consultations with authorities known as Regional Public Dialogue.

MONTEGO BAY, St. James; Thursday November 21, 2019: Two Hundred and fifty (250) hotel workers from Iberostar Montego Bay, attended a pension sensitization session yesterday. The session, spearheaded by Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett, was held as part of an island wide effort to update workers on the next steps for the Tourism Workers Pension scheme.

"Today we had a very strong meeting, the first of a series of sensitization sessions we will undertake for registration for membership of the pension scheme.

We had a full house and we will continue this process island wide to make sure our workers understand the rudiments of the scheme and are prepared for the actual start of registration," said Minister Bartlett.

The two hundred and fifty (250) workers in attendance provided their contact details as an expression of interest and will be notified once full registration begins in January.

"Elements to operationalize the scheme are well underway. The Request for Proposal for the Fund Manager is already out and bids are to come in by next week. The actuary is also being shortlisted and is expected to be appointed in short order," Minister Bartlett added.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Mrs. Jennifer Griffith, encouraged the workers to join the scheme by "preparing yourself as it will endow to your own welfare in the long run."

The Tourism Workers' Pension Scheme is designed to cover all workers ages 18-59 year in the tourism sector, whether permanent, contract or self-employed. This include hotel workers as well as persons employed in related industries such as craft vendors, tour operators, red cap porters, contract carriage operators and workers at attractions.

MONTEGO Bay, Jamaica; November 21, 2019:  Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett says that over the next 3 years, the Tourism Linkages Network intends to invest JM$66 million, to develop Jamaica’s Health and Wellness Tourism product.

Speaking yesterday at the opening ceremony for the inaugural Jamaica Health and Wellness Tourism Conference, the Minister noted that, “Jamaica has a genesis in Health and Wellness as a tourism industry, and we want to drive that and spend more time on building it out. Therefore, we will be spending $22 million annually, over the next three years to assist this process.”

The Network will also be working in partnership with industry stakeholders to help Jamaicans create accredited market ready health and wellness tourism services, based on their knowledge of traditional uses of endemic herbs and plants.

“Jamaica has been famous for all these oils that come from our ‘bush’ or herbs. But for us to be able to leverage all of that cultural heritage so that it can have an enormous impact in the tourism space, will be a huge development,” said the Minister.

The Tourism Minister pointed to studies, which have identified to-date, 334 plants growing in Jamaica that can be used for medicinal purposes, with the unofficial list being 366.

“Of these plants, 193 have been tested for bioactivity and crude extracts from samples of these have identified natural products, which are bioactive.

31 of these plants tested were endemic to Jamaica, which possesses the ideal conditions for cultivation of a wide variety of medicinal herbs, more so that 60% of the world’s major medicinal herbs are currently grown in Jamaica,” he said.

This focus on Health and Wellness forms part of the Ministry of Tourism’s mission to expand tourism beyond the traditional “sand, sea and sun” concept. 

“Research has also shown that health and wellness tourism represents one of the fastest growing travel segments. Therefore, we must find ways to better support the enhancement and development of Jamaica’s health and wellness product,” said Minister Bartlett.

The Health and Wellness Network, headed by acclaimed scientist Dr. Henry Lowe, has been working with partners to develop an effective governance framework to make Jamaica’s wellness industry more internationally competitive.

The Network will also be packaging, promoting and marketing health and wellness assets as an important tourism niche area.

The Jamaica Health and Wellness Conference took place at the Montego Bay Convention Centre from November 20 – 21, 2019. It brought together leading academic scientists, researchers and research scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results on all aspects of Health and Wellness Tourism.

Discussions focused on global health and wellness tourism data and insights; Wellness travel experiences; Nutraceuticals; Herbaceuticals; Medical tourism; and the Health and Wellness Tourism value chain.

The Tourism Linkages Network, which is a division of the Tourism Enhancement Fund, organized the event with the assistance of key industry partners.  It is the first event of its kind to take place in the island.

MONTEGO BAY, St. James, Thursday November 21, 2019: United States Ambassador to Jamaica, Donald Tapia and Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett along with a raft of officials welcomed the commencement of daily nonstop American Airlines service between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Montego Bay's Sangster International Airport today.  

American Airlines flight # 1349 arrived at 11:07a.m today with passengers and crew being treated to a warm welcome by officials complete with a performance by a Jamaican mento band. 

Ambassador Tapia noted that, “The US and Jamaica have had a long history of diplomatic relations which includes strong airlift arrangements. Today is another representation of the strong ties between both countries which will positively impact Jamaica’s tourism and our flagship carrier."

Meanwhile Bartlett welcomed the new service noting that, "The Northeast region continues to be a strong performer for us as a destination in terms of arrivals. For the summer period, May to September 2019, the US market region recorded a 9.3 percent increase in arrivals with 785,055 visitors compared to the 718,531 visitors during the corresponding period last year. During that period, the Northeast outpaced the overall US market and saw an increase of 13.3 percent during the same period. While stopover arrivals from the US also recorded an increase of 11.1 percent for September 2019, the Northeast again outperformed the national average and grew by 18.1 percent. This reintroduced service augurs well for us as a destination." 

Mayor of Montego Bay, Councillor Homer Davis, Mr. Donovan White, Director of Tourism, Dr. Rafael Echvarne, CEO, MBJ Airports Limited, Mr. Omar Robinson, President, Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), Mr. Wellesley Joseph, AA Senior Regional Manager, Western Caribbean were among the specially invited guests at the flight arrival briefing. 

Meanwhile, Senior Advisor/Strategist, Delano Seiveright pointed out that the new American Airlines service comes within the frame of increased flights between the United States and Jamaica, "There is daily nonstop Delta Airlines service between Detroit, Michigan and Montego Bay starting December of this year. Jamaica has also been benefitting from several other new flight services including new nonstop flights between Dallas, Texas and Montego Bay by Sun Country Airlines; St Louis and Montego Bay by Southwest airlines and increased frequency of flights into both Kingston and Montego Bay by Jetblue and Delta Airlines." 

He further noted that the increasing buoyancy in the tourism space is attributable to Bartlett's consistent piloting of specific growth inducing efforts.  "The include further cementing and also opening up new source markets, including in Latin America and Europe; more new rooms; more new flights, closer collaboration with cruise operators; first-rate relationships with non-traditional players like Airbnb, among other things that represents the very cornerstone of our aggressive tourism growth strategy." 

American Airlines offers its 200 million annual customers 6,800 daily flights to more than 365 destinations in 61 countries from its hubs in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Washington, D.C.

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica, Wednesday, November 20, 2019: Jamaica’s drive towards professionalizing its tourism industry is moving towards classifying certified workers for the purpose of improved remuneration.

Through the Jamaica Centre of Tourism Innovation, established by the Ministry of Tourism, 1300 workers have so far been certified as professionals in their respective disciplines. Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett says “the next move is to classify the workers.” This will see them being graded according to classification.

This was outlined by Minister Bartlett at a long service awards for 78 employees of the Round Hill Hotel and Villas last night. He said a lot of emphasis was being put on training as “We are building a professional institution as well as a professional industry.”

Mr. Bartlett said at the point of the workforce being classified and remunerated according to classification “We would now have a brand new labour market arrangement in tourism.” He explained that a new approach will have to be taken when employing certified professionals in the industry with regards to tenure of service. “It would be a brand new ball game to emerge in tourism,” he said, noting that unlike in former years, the industry had moved away from employing on a seasonal basis.

The tourism Minister said the underlying factor behind all that was being done, was to put people at the center because it was the people who made everything happen.

“You were the pioneers; you were the ones who caused Jamaica to be what it is today in terms of our tourism standing in the world and our stature as a major tourism destination,” he told the workers with records of service ranging from 10 to 45 years, at the 66-year-old hotel.

With the development of artificial intelligence (AI) globally and talk that the new tourism is going to be all about automation, Mr. Bartlett opined that while robotics could help to do better and make it easier and more efficient “they cannot replace the people of tourism because tourism is about people.” 

Regarding visitor arrivals, he reiterated that Jamaica was now having year-round tourism and with record numbers in succeeding years, arrivals should hit the 4-million mark this year. He said last month a historical 250,000 tourists came to Jamaica when in former years hotels, would have been closed and workers laid off.

He said tourism was now the number one industry in Jamaica, projecting to earn this year US$3.7 billion, leading in contribution to gross domestic product and “Today is the largest contributor to the economic growth of Jamaica.”

Minister Bartlett shared with the Round Hill workers that “For the first time in our history Jamaica is leading the world in terms of worker safety and security.” The Tourism Workers Pension Plan which is expected to be fully operational in early 2020, is a major contributor to that and “Sets an example to the entire world as to the type of social security and safety net that can be provided for the workers of this industry,” he expressed with pride.