Jamaica to launch activities in Indian market

Jamaica expects its tourism receipts in 2024 to exceed the 2019 levels by over USD 1 billion. To promote the destination in new markets, Jamaica Tourism is looking at Middle East, India and China markets, Edmund Bartlett, Minister of Tourism, Jamaica, tells India Outbound

- Ranvir Nayar

Q What are your goals for 2023?

In 2023, we will exceed the 2019 level of tourist arrivals by a little over 100,000. And we also are looking at 3,000 new rooms coming on in 2023. So we should see 2024, not only reaching the levels of pre-Covid in full, not just cruise and stopovers, but to exceed the earnings, you know, almost by USD 1 billion.

How are you seeing the new markets?

In terms of new markets, we think that the Middle East or MENA is definitely an area that we are going after with a lot of energy. We are having discussions with the airlines, with Emirates in particular. And we are going to also be looking at Saudia and Riyadh, the new airline that is now on the horizon. I had talks with Qatar and of course with Etihad. We have already been in discussion with the Royal Jordanian, which is part of this mix.

It is important not just to talk about outbound from MENA, but also talk about gateways and the big gateway to Asia and India in particular, in China is Doha, Dubai and of course Riyadh. So our ambition is to drive traffic from Asia through these gateways. In September of this year, we intend to have a number of travel partners coming to Jamaica for our trade show, which we call JPEX.