TORONTO — Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, the Hon. Edmund Bartlett, had updates to share about recent tourism developments in Jamaica at a dinner at the Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel & Conference Centre.

The delegation included Lloyd Wilks, Consul General; John Lynch, Chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board; Joy S. Roberts, Executive Director of Jamaica Vacations Ltd.; and Philip Rose, Regional Director, Canada of the Jamaica Tourist Board.

The news from the Canadian market is extremely positive, with Bartlett noting that “Canada has been a bubbling growth market for Jamaica over the last 12 months, and no market has grown faster for Jamaica in the past 12 months.”

In fact the Canadian market saw 7% growth in the first half of this year. This is a far cry from the 17% downturn that occurred prior to the last 12 months. The reversal is created in part due to a “rescue program” that was embarked upon by the team at the Jamaican Tourist Board, who set out to reverse the negative and drive growth.

Jamaica is looking to break 400,000 Canadian visitors this year, and is aiming for 420,000 next year. The stated goal is to reach 500,000 Canadian visitors by 2020.

According to Bartlett, the positive growth can be attributed to the fact that “Jamaica has the best product, and is the finest destination, in the Caribbean. No other destination has the mix that Jamaica has: music, food, romance and ‘the three S’s’ – sun, sea and sand. Now, three more S’s are additionally being promoted to portray Jamaica as a destination; safe, secure and a seamless experience.”

Five pillars of growth currently under focus were outlined. The first is ‘New Products.’ The room count in the country will be increased from 28,000 to 45,000 in a five year period. The number of attractions will also be increased exponentially, responding to people’s passions to determine the types of attractions.

The second pillar of growth is ‘New Markets.’ Canada is currently the second largest market for Jamaica. India is a primary focus as a growth market as it has the fastest growing middle class of any nation in the world and a booming population. Other markets of interest for Jamaica are Thailand, affluent areas of Southeast Asia, Eastern European communities and Africa. Additional areas of focus are Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador and Panama.

The third is ‘New Investments,’ with an emphasis on fast turnaround to enable investment projects to break ground within six months.

The fourth is ‘New Partnerships,’ which means further partnerships with media, tour operators, travel agents, airlines, governments of various countries, banks, and academic training institutions in various countries. The goal is to create seamless arrangements that result in experiences in Jamaica for tourists.

The final pillar of growth equals ‘Renew Human Capital,’ which encourages training to create efficient providers of innovative products. In other words, it’s a push to expand human capacity to create and to add value. The intended result is an increased capacity for Jamaicans to attract more Canadian travellers by enabling destinations to respond to changing dynamics, trends and demographics.

An additional area of focus is to increase arrivals by long-haul travellers. The principal idea to accomplish this goal is to develop multi-destination tourism, combining Jamaica with other destinations such as Cuba, the D.R. and Mexico, so that long-haul travellers can visit multiple islands in one vacation.