Jamaica to Hold Summit of Caribbean Tourism Ministers in December
Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has urged his regional counterparts to use the forum which will be provided at the upcoming Tourism Outlook Seminar (TOS) 2016 to develop a model that will drive growth in regional tourism, despite numerous global challenges.
Speaking at the press launch for the event on October 27, 2016, at Kingston’s iconic Devon House, Bartlett argued that while tourism was undoubtedly one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing sectors, it faced many complex challenges, such as terrorism, pandemics, natural disasters, catastrophes, economic uncertainty in source markets, and the ever-changing demands of travelers.
He underscored that TOS 2016, which is slated for December 6 to 8, 2016 — the eve of the winter tourist season — at the Montego Bay Convention Centre, would provide the ideal opportunity for national and regional tourism policymakers and stakeholders to examine these and other issues and discuss ways to address them in order to foster continued growth.
“The seminar will also look at how we in the northern Caribbean space can develop a model that is going to make us grow at rates that are higher than the current position — because the Caribbean is arguably the slowest-growing destination in world tourism,” said Minister Bartlett.
“At the seminar, I will be hosting a summit of tourism Ministers from the region. We are going to discuss how we can change the game from the highly competitive tourism strategies that have not given us growth to a new more collaborative approach,” Bartlett added.
Tourism ministers are expected from The Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, and the Cayman Islands.
The event will be held under the theme: ‘Tourism: Navigating Global Changes for Continued Growth’. This year’s staging is being hosted by the Ministry of Tourism and the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) in collaboration with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). The seminar is being funded by the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF).
It will see contributions from global experts on critical topics, such as managing communications in the face of issues such as pandemics, terrorism and natural disasters; establishing multi-destination tourism; travel facilitation and connectivity and packaging destination experiences among other topics.
TOS 2016 will feature presenters and panelists from renowned local and international organizations, including: the UNWTO, Airbnb; TUI; Harvard University’s T H Chan School of Public Health; the World Travel and Tourism Council; the Caribbean Tourism Organization; the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA); and Sandals Resorts International (SRI).
Bartlett also announced that Caribbean Airlines has thrown its support behind the initiative and is the preferred airline partner for the seminar. Registration for the event is already open. Persons are being encouraged to register online and access additional information at www.visitjamaica.com/tourismseminar.
“I encourage everyone — policy makers, representatives of government ministries and agencies, hotel owners and senior managers, investors, academics, airline executives, travel agents, travel media, tour operators and other business partners — to go to the JTB website and register for TOS 2016 today,” Minister Bartlett emphasized.
Source: The Jamaica Observer
