Bartlett courts Middle East tourism market

JAMAICA, already famous in Asia through the exploits of cricketer Chris Gayle, who scored the fastest-ever T20 hundred, 175 runs from 66 balls in April 2013, again knocked the ball out of the park at last week’s Arabian Travel Market, May 1-4, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Attended by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president, prime minister and ruler of Dubai, the event drew worldwide tourism interests to one of the most sought-after markets by destinations.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett led Jamaica’s presence at the Arabian Travel Market, the leading global event for the inbound and outbound travel industry in the Middle East, welcoming more than 2,000 exhibitors, in excess of 150 countries represented and 34,000 attendees.

Jamaica’s colourful booth attracted major interest from travel experts in the UAE, the third-richest country in the world. The UAE earns the bulk of its money from the production of goods and provision of services related to petroleum, petrochemicals, aluminium, and cement.

Speaking during a panel discussion under the theme: ‘Strategic Sustainability Planning – Where Does the Supply Chain Start?’, Minister Bartlett used the opportunity to highlight Jamaica’s push to continuously diversify, hoping to “welcome a sharp increase in tourists from the Middle East and India in coming years as part of the ‘new markets build-out strategy’”.

Highlighting the quality of the Jamaican tourism product, Bartlett pointed to a J$1 billion investment in the training of all sectors involved.

“We spend a lot on training and developing the capacity of small players to be, first, more creative and innovative, and second, to be resourced financially, so we established a J$1 billion window for lending to small and medium enterprises through the EXIM bank in Jamaica,” stated the tourism minister.

Bartlett also explained how technology was being utilised as a major tool by the Ministry of Tourism in its drive to build resilience and substantiality in tourism and to connect smaller players in the industry to larger enterprises.

“We established a platform called ALEX, which connects the small farmers of one to five acres, in deep-rural regions, to purveyors and procurement officers in the hotels all across Jamaica. So on their smartphones, they can work out prices and delivery systems that allow for produce to be brought directly from farm gate to hotel,” Bartlett told the audience in stressing the success of the Tourism Enhancement Fund’s (TEF) Agri-Linkages Exchange (ALEX) initiative.

Launched in 2020, farmers earned more than J$330 million in revenue in 2022 via the ALEX platform.

Since January 2023, earnings were reported in excess of J$100 million.