Philip Rose, Regional Director - Canada, Jamaica Tourist Board, with Jamaican dancers
Jamaican Reggae band
guests at Experience Jamaica event at the Mississauga Convention Centre
Tanya States, BDM, Sunquest
“Experience Jamaica” the affair held at the Mississauga Convention Centre last week was memorable for 3 reasons: the reggae band, the Jamaican dancers and Philip Rose.
I have heard people say that “Experience Jamaica” reflects the island’s vibe but, it wasn’t until I walked into the convention centre after a 2 hr. drive in the pouring rain, felt the ambiance and sat down to talk to Rose, Regional Director – Canada, Jamaica Tourist Board, that I realized what people were referring to.
“We wanted to fly everybody down to Jamaica and let them experience it 1st hand,” he said. “We’re expecting 200 travel agents tonight and obviously that would have been a logistical nightmare so we opted to bring a little piece of Jamaica here. The only thing we couldn’t do anything about is the weather – the torrential rain and cold - but it’s certainly warm and inviting inside.”
It really was. Reggae music filled the halls of the convention centre; authentic Jamaican dancers seemed to put a smile on people’s faces as they paraded around to the music and proper Jamaican food was set out and devoured with enjoyment by the guests. Rose encouraged people to eat, dance and have a feel good time!
During our conversation he mentioned that the tourist board is putting a strong emphasis on its new campaign: Get All Right.
“For many years the slogan was: Once You Go, You Know,” Rose said. “And now that so many Canadians have visited Jamaica, they can appreciate the fact that Jamaica gives you that sense of an even-keel, everything is kind of perfect, getting all right with your life type of thing.”
What struck me most about Rose was that he never once took sole credit for the tourist board’s success in Canada. He was constantly mentioning his team, partners and the travel agents whom he respects and honours.
“We’re here to thank travel agents for all that they’ve done for us,” he said. “This year, between January and September we’ve welcomed approximately 312,000 visitors from Canada. This is a 6% increase over last year. We had to have an event so that we can thank our most important travel partners - being the travel agents - for all the business that they’ve given us.”
He also wanted to remind the agents to keep Jamaica in mind for the winter season. “As winter approaches this is the perfect [event] for us to engage and remind travel agents that we are there for them,” Rose said. “It also gives me an opportunity to have some authentic Jamaican food with 200 of my closest friends.”
