MONTEGO BAY, St James –Tourism players have hailed a success the 20th staging of the three-day Jamaica Product Exchange (JAPEX) which was held at the Half Moon Shopping Village in Montego Bay which saw some 92 buyer delegates descended on the trading floor to see the offering of the destination’s products and services.

The annual tourism trade fair, which was held from May 11 to 13, was officially opened amid much fanfare at the Sandals Royal Caribbean Resort, with guests being ferried to the nearby Sandals Cay for a night of great music, food and fun.

Newly re-elected president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) Wayne Cummings told Sunday Finance that this year’s trade show was better than last year.

“I think we are going to have a better year this year than last year,” Cummings told Sunday Finance shortly after the market floor was opened.

He added that both suppliers and buyers are energised and those who did not have a lot of pre-bookings were able to get a lot of new business on the floor,” he said.

He noted also that JAPEX has outgrown many of the current facilities for its staging hence the high anticipation for the completion of the Montego Bay Convention Centre which is slated to be opened next January.

Buyer delegates are mainly from the United States and Canada and to a lesser extent United Kingdom and Russia but Cummings said this was deliberate given there will be a second JAPEX this October to cater to the Latin America and emerging markets.

Meanwhile Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart, chairman of the Sandals Chain of Resorts, said this year JAPEX is highly constructive and fabulous.

“What the JHTA and the Jamaica Tourist Board have done with JAPEX shows off Jamaican hospitality beauty and strength of product no one can compare to,” he said.

He added that this shows the tourism sector’s vibrancy and sheer ability to make blood out of stone.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett also agreed that this years’ JAPEX was bigger and far more extensive in its offerings to buyers.

“This is really very huge and the space is very cram and this indicates the need for the Convention Centre,” Bartlett said.

The tourism minister said the success of this years’ JAPEX is very significant as the sector moves into a challenging summer period to fill the 1.3 million airlift seats guaranteed for the destination this period.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Bruce Golding who officially declared JAPEX opened also lauded the tourism sector for its resilience during the global downturn in tourism.

According to Golding the sector even dared to expand bringing on stream several hundred new rooms with plans for others.

He noted that Jamaica, now more than ever, is heavily dependent on tourism given the downturn in the bauxite sector which accounted for 50 per cent of the country’s merchandise export.

He, however, urged the industry to continue to be ‘bullish’ in its approach to claim an even bigger slice of the tourism pie.

“Never has Jamaica had to depend on tourism like it did in the last 18 months and we look to them to continue to carry that load,” he said.

“We are bullish about the future,” he said.

Thanking the buyers for the interest shown in the destination, Golding said “we will build more rooms and fill them because we have some of the best marketers,” the prime minister said.