Int’l chains urged to come to Expo Ja 2018

INTERNATIONAL HOTEL chains operating on the island are being urged by the Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) to make use of the wide-ranging opportunities available to them this Thursday through to Sunday at Expo Jamaica 2018 to be held at the National Arena and environs.

Berletta Henlon Forrester, JAMPRO’s sales and promotions manager, revealed during a recent Gleaner Editors’ Forum at its head offices on North Street in Kingston, that JAMPRO intends to deepen the relationships between international hotel chains and Jamaican manufacturers.

“We, as buyer recruitment partners for Expo Jamaica, have a particular interest in the hospitality sector because we figure that it is a key part of the economy,” Henlon Forrester.

“We are calling on these hotels to come out to Expo Jamaica, because in one place they will be able to see the widest variety of goods and services. We are talking about food and beverage, furniture, construction materials, and so on. Expo Jamaica will give them the opportunity to interact with manufacturers and producers and to negotiate deals on spot,” she explained.

“JAMPRO can provide a great deal of assurance to these companies that the producers we are putting in front of them are established and are capable to meet their needs,” Henlon Forrester stated.

“Doing business locally would reduce the costs and processes involved in importing items into Jamaica. It gives them the opportunity to source just-intime products, and there will be no need to wait on products to be shipped from another country. It gives them opportunity to negotiate according to specification,” she told The Gleaner.

She continued: “We have companies in the cosmetic sector, for example, who are making things like the small items placed in the hotel rooms including soaps and lotions. We have companies in Jamaica that are making them with the brands for the specific hotels and are making it to the specification of the hotels.

“Those are available but not enough of our hotels are using them. It might mean that not enough of them are aware, so in particular, we want them to pay attention to that sector,” she said.