Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett is leading a high-level team on a series of visits to the US and Canada in an effort to increase visitor arrivals to the country as well as foster further investment in the tourism sector. The US and Canada are Jamaica’s two largest source markets for tourism.
“Jamaica remains a safe destination and we want to reassure our tourism interests of this. A key factor is our Tourism Resilience Corridors, which have a low infection rate of less than one per cent. Our product remains strong and is indeed top of mind, despite the challenges. We will therefore continue to drive the marketing arrangements to minimise any possible fallout,” said Bartlett in a release.
His overseas visits come on the heels of a fall in demand for travel to Jamaica within the last seven days. Bartlett attributes the slump to “challenges posed by the third wave of COVID-19 impacting the island, as well as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recent Level 4 classification”.
“We want to assure our partners and our visitors that we are doing all that we can to ensure that their visit to the island will indeed be a safe one. Our protocols are in place to ensure that you will be able to visit our attractions and have an authentic Jamaican experience, but in a safe and seamless way,” he said.
“We have been ramping up efforts to ensure that our tourism workers are fully vaccinated and have seen much success from this initiative. Therefore, you can rest assured that visitors are in a safe environment. In fact our safety standards and protocols are highly celebrated worldwide and were key to us being able to welcome over one million visitors since we reopened our borders,” he added.
