Jamaica’s Tourism Outlook Seminar Examining Issues Critical to Survival, Sustainability of Key Industry

With the UNWTO co-sponsoring the Third Annual Seminar, almost 200 regional and global industry leaders joined their local counterparts in Jamaica to discuss a range of key issues relating to travel and tourism during the third annual Tourism Outlook Seminar.

The theme of this year’s seminar is Challenges, Changes & Opportunities in Tourism - Rising Above the Current Global Economic Landscape. The event is taking place over two days at the Ritz-Carlton Golf & Spa Resort, Rose Hall, located in the resort capital of Montego Bay, from February 2-3, 2010. It is clear that the support of the UNWTO has attracted a number of regional and international participants for this year’s seminar, where presenters are examining the current state of the industry, look at the way forward and make recommendations on how to maintain the competitive edge, given the current economic conditions.

Opening today’s session, Carlos Vogeler, the regional Representative for The Americas of the UNWTO referred to the most pressing topics of today’s tourism industry, noting that Jamaica is a good example to follow in The Caribbean. Speaking about the region, surprisingly it has dropped by only 2%, being one of the lowest in the world. Mr. Vogeler gave the delegates a very detailed analysis of tourism, and for the Caribbean he was overall optimistic, revealing a 2-4% increase in tourism for 2010, this assuming no major catastrophic events on the horizon, either locally or globally. The contracted market in the US and UK have had an impact on the Jamaican scene, but offsetting this is growth from Spanish speaking countries having a positive effect.

Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmond Barlett asked for silent condolences for the ones that left us in Haiti’s earthquake, before giving a detailed analysis on Jamaica’s tourism, revealing a record number of arrivals for 2009, the largest in their history :” This seminar is an unique opportunity to strengthen existing partnerships”... “We in this room are the Architects of tourism”….” This Seminar is an important gathering of local and regional key players”…“Think creatively”….”Dialog is critical”…, were some of the ideas he expressed in a very optimistic way.

“The prospect for Jamaica’s tourism is for a good year and the Tourism Outlook Seminar will give the industry an added boost for success,” noted Jamaica’s Director of Tourism John Lynch who will be among the presenters. “This seminar brings together some of the best minds and affords a greater level of cooperation and consensus among the players, which is vital to the continued and sustained growth of the industry, locally as well regionally.”

The morning session also counted with the presentation of Mr. Willard Phillips – Economic Affairs Officer of ECLAC, “The Global Economic Outlook: Perspective from the Americas”, and Mr. Logan Stanton, the head of North America World Economic Forum talked about “Tourism Competitiveness in the current World Economy”.

Among the distinguished list of speakers are: Minister of Tourism for the Bahamas, Vincent Vanderpool Wallace; UNWTO’s Regional Representative for the Americas, Carlos Vogeler; Economic Affairs Officer of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Willard Phillips; Head of North America World Economic Forum, Logan Stanton; Special Advisor to the Secretary General of the UNWTO, Geoffrey Lipman; Secretary General of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, Hugh Riley; Director General and CEO of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourist Association, Alec Sanguinetti; Director of the Department of Sustainable Development, OAS, Cletus Springer; and, CEO of the American Society of Travel Agents, William Maloney.

One of the highly anticipated topics being explored at the seminar is The Roadmap to Recovery: Effective Airlift, a session featuring a panel of experts including Air Jamaica’s President and CEO Bruce Nobles; US Airways’ Manager International Route Planning Brian Council; JetBlue Airways’ Head of Sales Caribbean & Latin America Chad Meyerson; and British Airways Head of UK & Ireland Sales and Marketing Richard Tams.