JTB hosts Latin American blitz

ARGENTINE travel stakeholders confirmed their enthusiasm for the Jamaican tourism product by flocking the Jamaica Tourist Board’s (JTB) first major marketing event in its capital, Buenos Aires, since the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted world travel in 2020.

The Buenos Aires event marked the first stop of the JTB’s Latin American blitz, which Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett described as “a campaign to recover the South American market, which has shown a preference for Jamaica”.

“Argentina is our first stop and, most important, our largest market. Our target is to re-engage this region to bring tour operators, travel agents and airlines together, as well as our hotel partners, showing that the Jamaican product has rebounded in record manner from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Bartlett told the gathering of Argentine travel stakeholders.

Bartlett noted that the turnout for the July 31 event reaffirmed Latin America’s attraction to Jamaica as a choice destination after more than 7,000 Argentine tourists visited the island in 2019, a growing trend which was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are also looking at investors in the Jamaican tourism sector as well. The idea is to bring this market up to two million visitors from Latin America in the next five years,” he told The Gleaner, naming Chile, Peru, Colombia, Brazil and Mexico as his “other stops on the Latin American road”.

The Jamaica Tourist Board’s South American road trip coincides with another major event aimed at that market – Sandals Resorts’ annual Latin American Travel Advisers Golf Tournament – set to tee off on Friday, August 25, at the Sandals Golf and Country Club in Upton, St Mary.

Last year’s tournament coincided with the 40th Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association’s Caribbean Travel Marketplace in San Juan Puerto Rico, October 3-5, at which Bartlett revealed that the sector had led the island’s economic recovery out of the COVID-19 pandemic, earning nearly US$5.7 billion after the country reopened its borders in June 2020.

Meanwhile, Arlenes Garcia, director, sales and marketing, Unique Vacations, Latin America, said Jamaica is a preferred booking location for the travel advisers, who are set to compete in the ninth Latin American Travel Advisors Golf Tournament, one of three such contests Sandals hosts annually to promote the island as a golfing destination.

Last year’s tournament saw 19 teams competing, led by Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Uruguay, Panama and Peru.

“The Caribbean, particularly Jamaica, is always popular among Latin American travel advisers, as opposed to other destinations, due to the region’s beautiful beaches and resorts. Where Jamaica is concerned, the sporting tradition is really strong and that’s how the golf comes in,” Garcia explained, adding that Latin American travel advisers consider Jamaica their “home away from home”.