KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett and his South African counterpart, Hon. Patricia de Lille, met yesterday (April 3) to debate constructing a cooperation framework to make tourism for each international locations a key driver of financial improvement.
“Jamaica welcomes the potential for collaboration, significantly within the discipline of tourism. That is an trade that may be transformative, socially and economically, so we wish to leverage tourism for the complete advantage of our respective international locations. Each Jamaica and South Africa are leaders in sustainable tourism, so collectively we have now loads of concepts and finest practices to share,” famous Minister Bartlett.
The tourism ministers met on the margins of the African Tourism Funding Summit, presently underway in Cape City, South Africa, underneath the theme: “Revitalizing Funding in Sustainable Tourism on the African Continent”, the place Mr. Bartlett participated in a ministerial roundtable with authorities ministers, finance executives and directors from South Africa, Botswana, Spain and Sierra Leone.
The 2 nations additionally agreed to additional cooperation within the areas of human capital improvement, significantly coaching, and the constructing out of funding choices to have South African traders take a look at product improvement in Jamaica. Minister Bartlett mentioned famous, “Alternatives abound for funding in Jamaica’s tourism trade, so we welcome this curiosity from South Africa”.
Hon. Edmund Bartlett
With regard to air connectivity, the tourism ministers mentioned prospects for introducing new flight providers between the 2 counties. “South African Airways, Africa’s main airline, is presently targeted on continental Africa. Nevertheless, post-COVID, the airline intends to re-enter the US and UK markets. With our airline associate, Delta, flying immediately into Cape City each airways can codeshare to facilitate the motion of site visitors from South Africa by Atlanta to Kingston and Montego Bay,” Minister Bartlett defined.
Relationship Constructing
“I stay up for constructing out the connection with tour operators and journey brokers in South Africa to get the tourism site visitors transferring,” he added. The African market of 1.3 billion individuals is being eyed as the subsequent huge customer supply marketplace for Jamaica because the trade seeks to diversify past conventional markets in North America and Europe.
Ministers Bartlett and de Lille additionally mentioned establishing a satellite tv for pc International Tourism Resilience and Disaster Administration Centre (GTRCMC) on the College of Johannesburg. Mr. Bartlett famous that the College of the West Indies, Mona, the place the GTRCMC is headquartered, and the College of Johannesburg “have already cast a tutorial partnership so this might be a very good match. It’ll pave the way in which for the 2 establishments to work collectively to develop coverage and conduct related analysis on vacation spot preparedness, administration and restoration.” The centre will serve Southwest Africa.