Bartlett says better marketing strategy needed to woo tourists
MONTEGO BAY, St James – Edmund Bartlett, the opposition Jamaica Labour Party’s spokeman on tourism, yesterday pointed to the need for government to pump more money into its marketing budget and redefine its modus operandi in the face of flagging visitor arrivals.
“Sixteen million dollars is inadequate to drive growth. What will be needed for us to recover from the downturn… is that the Ministry of Tourism needs to go back to the Ministry of Finance and revise that 16 million to a minimum of $25 million for the rest of the year so as to stop the decline, restore some bouyancy into summer and the next winter season,” said Bartlett at a press conference to review the industry’s winter season performance which ended three days ago.
Bartlett said that in addition to the government’s lax approach to marketing, some of the factors which contributed to the season’s disappointing performance included the Tourism Ministry’s failure to:
. properly analyse and pay attention to its bread and butter market of North America;
. diversify its tourism product by adding top-end attractions;
. take advantage of potential markets like Russia, South America and the Asian markets;
. take seriously the adverse effect that the western travel iniative would have on visitor arrivals;
He said the way forward was to tackle these issues head-on with a revised strategy that would redefine tourism as an export industry.
“It cannot be done by cutting the critical budgetary requirements that are needed for marketing and promotions,” he said.