Hon. Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica's Minister of Tourism
It’s not every day you get to say “Yes Minister” – and that was only one fun part of my chat with The Hon. Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism.
In town to thank a host of airline and tour operator friends at an “intimate” dinner for 50, the Minister also took some time to reflect on the golden-boy status of Canadian inbound traffic to his island home.
We Canucks clearly have a love affair happening with Jamaica: arrivals are up 73 per cent over the past three years (23 per cent up in the first five months of this year alone compared to 2010). That meant almost 220,000 visitors in just five months – stats we’re more used to seeing from Cuba, the DR and Mexico.
New for this winter, are direct flights from Thunder Bay and St. John’s, Nfld. – and the Minister assured me that they’ll make sure, the islanders have stocked up on Red Stripe and Appleton Rum to ensure a warm welcome!
And it’s not just the potables that make Jamaica appealing to us. Apparently the legacy of Bob Marley continues to lure visitors - and not just from North America but also from burgeoning markets such as China, Japan and Italy, which has its own reggae festival. (Who knew?)
Concerns have been expressed about the number of all-inclusives on the island – some 50 in all, resulting in visitors staying on-site in the “compound” and not getting out to experience the real Jamaica. Minister Bartlett says that “All-inclusives are now popular globally, as driven by consumer demand. We are an island economy dependent on tourism which not only directly employs 10 per cent of our work force but provides enormous trickle-down benefits to farmers, condiment makers, and so on.”
But EP is not forgotten in Jamaica: “We recognize there is a demand for EP holidays, and in fact the next wave of hotel development will be favouring EP in key areas such as Port Antonio.”
And as to the threat of the on-again, off-again rapprochement between the US and Cuba – does he worry that if the US ever allows Americans wide access to Cuba it will lure them away from Jamaica? “We have our own niche, and Cuba won’t develop overnight,” he smiled.
And, he reminded me, that nowhere else but Jamaica do you find irie – that sensation that has been defined as being “totally at peace with your own current state of being”.
That, and no snow. No wonder we love Jamaica so much!
