Jamaica seeks new tourism deals with South Americans

Minister Bartlett, who is accompanied by the Director of Tourism John Lynch, is scheduled to hold discussions with tourism officials in Brazil, Chile and Columbia.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Thursday May 19, 2011 – Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett is now in South America in search of new agreements with tour operators and airlines with the aim of boosting the number of visitors to Jamaica from that continent.

Minister Bartlett, who is accompanied by the Director of Tourism John Lynch, is scheduled to hold discussions with tourism officials in Brazil, Chile and Columbia. These discussions will be aimed at concretizing arrangements for flights from those countries to start traveling to Jamaica before the end of this year.

“Countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Columbia and Chile are relatively untapped markets with a very large middle class population who are inclined to travel and explore destinations such as Jamaica,” Bartlett said, shortly before leaving the island on his 11-day trip.

“We will be aggressively pursuing these travelers to have them come to Jamaica, which based on new additions to our product, offers exactly what these holiday makers are seeking.”

Team also plans to travel to Russia next month to continue discussions on strengthening Jamaica’s position in that market.

“Countries like these have for the most part recovered from the grips of the worldwide economic recession and as a nation Jamaica must be first in trying to get visitors who are traveling, to visit our country,” Bartlett said.

The Tourism Minister added that the Jamaica Tourist Board will be increasing its marketing and promotional activities over the next few months with the aim of getting more visitors to travel to the island, especially during the 2011/12 winter tourist season which starts on December 15. 

He said he would also be approaching the Tourism Enhancement Fund shortly for financial support to kick-start the 2012 promotion. Those funds, he said, will go specifically towards marketing Jamaica in new territories such as Russia, China and parts of South America.

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