Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett launched an intense marketing offensive in several US cities starting today, including several meetings with airline partners and key interviews with major media outlets in New York, Chicago and Dallas.
“Maintaining strong relationships with our U.S. tourism partners, who are our largest source market and bring in 74 percent of our arrivals, is vital. It is through these strong relationships that we have been able to achieve continued growth of four percent through 2023,” Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett said.
The multi-city marketing offensive will kick off in New York with a series of major media interviews and participation in Caribbean Tourism Organization Week, where the Minister will speak on the “Minister’s Forum (Leveraging Artificial Intelligence)” panel.Following the CTO’s 35th anniversary theme, “Connecting the World and Celebrating Diversity,” Caribbean Week 2024 will showcase a dynamic lineup of events and business meetings.
The minister is also scheduled to meet with executives from major airlines JetBlue, Delta and United.
“We are seizing this opportunity to once again work with our partners to foster tremendous growth in our tourism sector. We in no way discount the hard work of our tourism stakeholders and tourism sector workers who have contributed to the success of Jamaica’s tourism industry. Through this collaboration with the United States, we look forward to further discussions to strengthen our partnership for further growth,” Bartlett said.
“The United States remains an important sending market for Jamaica, so it is important that we continue to engage with key stakeholders in the United States to find ways to improve outcomes,” said Tourism Director General Donovan White.
Tourism in Jamaica is booming; visitor numbers in 2023 set a record at over 4 million. The island is on track to surpass that figure in 2024, having already seen over 2 million visitors in the first four months of the year. The island’s 2024 forecast calls for 4.58 million visitors and a 9.6% increase in revenue to US$4.38 billion.
