ST JAMES, Jamaica (JIS) — Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has announced the establishment of a special committee that has been charged with developing an entertainment industry policy for Jamaica’s tourism sector.

Speaking recently at a ceremony for the establishment of a new hotel in Montego Bay, Bartlett disclosed that the committee, headed by entertainment promoter Kamal Bankie, is to focus on developing a policy that will drive the entertainment sector in a more focused and structured way.

“The network we have set up is now led by Entertainment Promoter Kamal Bankie and he is building out a team that will help us to define a policy for entertainment in the tourism industry that will define the parameters within which investors will operate,” said Bartlett.  

He said the policy will guide Jamaica’s strategies in the marketplace as a destination with quality entertainment events year-round, as currently the country’s entertainment product has not yet been sufficiently ‘built out’ to allow this.

The minister stated that the vision is to ensure that there are stronger productions, and more investments in production of entertainment events which should lead to infrastructural development for the industry and, ultimately, investments to include the establishment of a performing arts centre in Montego Bay.

Meanwhile, Bartlett said he will be having a series of meetings with key St James tourism stakeholders later this month to take a close and definitive look at the way forward in building out destination Montego Bay. These meetings will have a heavy leaning towards the renewal of the city, with a focus on improving the entertainment experiences.

“It is not sufficient for us to have events that dot the landscape at periods of time during a year or a season because, although that provides some basic employment, it does not provide sustainable employment in what we call good jobs in tourism,” explained Minister Bartlett. “But, if we build out a product which involves a number of events and that have certainty in terms of their timeline, quality in terms of their production capacity, reliability in terms of the frequency that it happens and more importantly, authenticity, we will be able to go to the market and say to tour operators, travel agents and partners overseas, ‘Sell this package for Jamaica’.”