Tourism figures soaring
TOURISM IS undoubtedly Jamaica’s lead driver for substantial growth and development. The work that the Edmund Bartlett-led and -inspired Ministry of Tourism and its agencies do is nothing short of incredible, given the numerous sensitivities of the sector and the need to maintain a positive image of our island nation.
It is unfortunate, then, that Dr
Wykeham McNeill, opposition spokesman for tourism and former minister of tourism, inappropriately used his chairmanship of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee to not only distract from the world-leading performance of the ministry and its agencies, but also possibly malign the characters of several employed there.
The Ministry of Tourism and its agencies, like all others around the globe, take part in extensive travelling as the business is largely international. This is the very nature of tourism and has been the case for a very long time. The results of travel engagements by me and other ministry/agency officials have assisted in the best performance of Jamaica’s tourism sector on record.
We brought 500,000 MORE tourists to Jamaica’s shores in 2017, over 2016. That’s just one year, totalling 4.3 million tourists. This is as many as, or exceeds, what McNeill delivered in his four years in office from 2012 to early 2016 as minister – a lacklustre performance in a generally stable global economic environment.
Additionally, the country raked in more than $375 billion in revenues in 2017 alone. Yet another record. It is no surprise why McNeill then is so afraid to make a Sectoral Debate presentation.
I want to put on record my commitment to giving my best when working for Jamaica overseas in the pursuit of national prosperity. Tourism travel should be put in the context of the need, as is always the case, to regularly engage our critical stakeholders in North America, South America, Europe and elsewhere.
NEW SOURCE MARKET
That has resulted in the cementing and opening up of 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. That’s overall value in the billions of dollars, not millions, and our work is always, in real time, fed in detail to traditional media and social media platforms.
Our engagements with Airbnb at their headquarters in northern California last summer, for example, resulted in sponsorship of just under $9 million for the major Global Tourism Conference in Montego Bay last year. Engagements in Europe and Latin America have resulted in new flights and new partnerships around the globe, bringing thousands more tourists and hard dollars.
Recent activities occurred with the backdrop of an, albeit necessary, state of public emergency in the parish of St James that triggered an enormous amount of negative press and jitters internationally, thereby putting tremendous strain on the sector and catapulting the ministry and its agencies into international crisismanagement mode.
Nonetheless, energy-draining, collective efforts on the ground in international markets with a slew of stakeholders assisted greatly in reversing the then expected decline. Today, stopover arrivals for the first five months of the year, January to May, surpassed a million, representing a 5.5 per cent increase over the same period last year. Cruise arrivals also recorded a 5.5 per cent increase for the same period, standing at 933,892, thus bringing total visitor-arrival figures to a record-breaking near two million.
The ministry remains firmly on track to achieving and likely surpassing growth targets set by Bartlett at the beginning of the administration in 2016, which is to bring five million tourists, generate US$5 billion in earnings, increase total direct tourism jobs to 125,000, and add 15,000 new rooms all by 2021.
Our work for the people of Jamaica will continue, and we will not be dissuaded by persons propelled by negativity.