Gay Nagle Myers
A familiar figure has returned to the tourism helm in Jamaica, following recent elections and victories by the Jamaica Labour Party: Edmund Bartlett, who formerly served as minister of tourism from 2007 to 2011.
And has set the bar high regarding his priorities in the job this time around.
“What is clear is that the present tourism course has not worked as planned," Bartlett said. "Our year-to-year growth has been in the 2% to 3.5% range for the past couple of years while our neighbors are experiencing double-digit growth.
“Jamaica did well in the recession years, but in the postrecession period we are growing at a lesser rate than our competitors."
Jamaica welcomed 2.1 million visitors in 2015, up 2.1% over 2014. Figures for 2014 showed a 3.6% jump over 2013.
“My aim is that Jamaica move to a 5% visitor increase in the next year and then to double-digit growth in the next five years. If we don't, we will be in the cellar,” he said.
Edmund Bartlett Photo Credit: Gay Nagle Myers
Bartlett is taking a hard look at strategies and partnerships, which he describes as two pillars of tourism.
“Jamaica has a strong reputation for service, and we have to maintain and strengthen this," he said. "Good service is 60% of the visitor experience."
Expanding Jamaica's “passion points” as he calls them is high on his list. “We have a great product line, and we need to showcase it better, like our gastronomy, sports, entertainment, our reggae music and our health and wellness facilities."
Better marketing tools to penetrate new visitor sources, increase U.S. numbers, which is the largest source market for Jamaica, “and bring Canada back to its glory” (Canadian visitors were down 6.8% in 2015 from 2014) top Bartlett's agenda.
“Strong partnerships with the airlines, tour operators and local stakeholders will guide us,” he said.