Jamaica to host mega Caribbean Travel Marketplace in 2024
Published:Friday | May 12, 2023 | 12:09 AMJanet Silvera/Senior Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
JAMAICA HAS announced its intention to host the highly respected Caribbean Travel Marketplace (CTM42) in 2024, cementing its status as one of the region’s top tourism destinations.
The announcement was made by Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett, at CTM41 now on in Barbados, where industry players have gathered for B2B (Business to Business) meetings negotiating hotel, transportation and attraction rates, in addition to discussions surrounding the future of Caribbean tourism.
With Montego Bay as the chosen location for this pivotal event, Jamaica is gearing up to showcase the island’s vibrant culture, warm hospitality and unparalleled offerings to a global audience.
The last time CTM was staged in Jamaica was five years ago and Bartlett pointed out that although the interregnum of COVID-19 has robbed the country of three years, this was a signature statement of recovery.
Bartlett is promising that Jamaica will host, in collaboration with the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), a marketplace with a difference.
“The focus will be on thought-leadership, sustainability and resilience, which are touch words that define the way forward, not just for tourism, but the world,” he told journalists at a press briefing at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre in Barbados.
He revealed plans his ministry, the Jamaica Tourist Board and Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association will bring to Jamaica including some of the major players from across the world to participate in a full day of discourse on the element of investment.
“Tourism investment is a big driver of growth for us,” he explained.
LIFEBLOOD INDUSTRY
CHTA president and Jamaican hotelier, Nicola Madden-Greig, who had lobbied for the event’s return to Jamaican soil, is pleased that attendees will get an opportunity to participate in pre and post tours of nearby destinations similar to what is currently being done in Barbados.
“We will be working with our northern Caribbean neighbours to promote multi-destination travel and airlift between them,” she noted. There is a growing sense of collaboration among Caribbean nations in promotion multi-destination tourism, while recognising the importance of working together to maximise the potential of the region’s lifeblood industry.
CTM42 is set for the spring of 2024, said Bartlett.
Currently, there are 101 companies at the tradeshow in Barbados, with record participation of 27 tour operators representing the United Kingdom, 12 of them new to the marketplace; 187 delegates, and 24 participating countries, including Jamaica.
New buyer countries at the tradeshow include Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Poland, Puerto Rico, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Spain, Sweden, Trinidad & Tobago, United Arab Emirates, the United States and Uruguay.