A delegation of publishers representing some of America’s most influential African-American newspapers will be visiting Jamaica from tomorrow to December 4 to hold discussions with tourism players, private sector leaders, senior government officials and representatives of the Jamaica media.

The visit by the members of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), which is being organised by the Jamaica Tourist Board and the Ministry of Tourism, was facilitated by the Embassy of Jamaica in Washington through its Office of Community Relations, JIS News said.

The tour is designed to familiarise the African-American press with current economic and social developments occurring in the island and, specifically, to further acquaint the Black publishing community with the Jamaican tourism product.

The publishers represent several key community papers from the cities of Philadelphia, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Indianapolis, Atlanta, New York, St Louis and Baltimore.

The visit was precipitated by consultations between the Jamaican ambassador to the United States, Professor Gordon Shirley, and Robert W Bogle, the president and chief executive officer of the Philadelphia Tribune, America’s oldest daily newspaper, which serves the Philadelphia African-American community.

The discussions centred on the development of a strategic approach involving the African-American media that would serve to increase awareness among Black Americans about current economic opportunities in the island and, particularly, acquaint the community with possibilities for investment, by African-American-owned businesses, in Jamaica.

Janet Madden, community relations officer at the Jamaican Embassy in Washington, described the visit as an “important new engagement between the African-American community and Jamaica, which will not only serve to deepen our natural cultural bonds but, more importantly, constitute a basis for a useful economic interchange that will be beneficial to Jamaica”.

She also stressed that the initiative would “not only benefit Jamaica’s tourism product in terms of greater patronage from the African-American community, but also potentially give greater exposure to the new and exciting investment opportunities that are emerging in Jamaica, particularly within the hospitality sector”.

The NNPA delegation has also expressed its interest in supporting a Jamaica Tourist Board media campaign to be initiated in the US market, which will specifically target the African-American community and will seek to increase the volume of visitors to Jamaica.

Since the late 1990s, several major players in the African-American media, such as Tom Joyner, have staged similar initiatives in the island, which have been directly focused on expanding Jamaica’s share of the African-American tourism market and establishing the island as the preferred Caribbean destination for Black Americans.