MONTEGO BAY, St James — Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett is encouraged that Saturday’s arrival of nearly 2,000 visitors for Caribbean Marketplace 2011 is a signal that the trade show will be even more successful than when it was last staged here in 2006.

Caribbean Marketplace, the largest regional tourism trade show, was officially opened at the newly constructed Montego Bay Convention Centre, yesterday evening.

“We welcome just under 2,000 buyers and sellers and suppliers and tourism partners to the 2011 marketplace. The last time that Jamaica hosted marketplace was in 2006 when we literally outperformed ourselves and everyone said that was the best marketplace ever,” a beaming Bartlett told members of the media.

According to Bartlett, among the nearly 2,000 who flew into the island for the tourism trade show, are nine regional tourism ministers.

Bartlett took time out to thank the many stakeholders who worked assiduously to organise the tourism trade show.

“I am proud of the organisation that has really been put in place to put together this event. I want to make special commendation to the CHTA and the team led by Alex Sanguinetti, the JHTA and the team led by Wayne Cummings, the JTB and the team lead by John Lynch, and I want to give special commendation also to Complant, the Chinese company that is responsible for the construction of the convention centre; the UDC that overall managed it, and some key people like Joan Gordon Whebly of the MSWMA, who have come in to do the landscaping and have really done themselves to make Jamaica proud on this occasion,” Bartlett said.

According to Bartlett, among the nearly 2,000 who flew into the island for the tourism trade show, are nine regional tourism ministers, who will be having a summit to devise strategies to lobby Britain to alter the Air Passenger Duty (APD).

The £75 APD imposed by Britain for people travelling to the Caribbean is said to be having a negative impact on regional tourism.

“We will be looking at the Caribbean marketing plan as well as we will be examining further the implications of the APB, looking at how it has affected us so far and to further fine-tune our campaign in relation to the continued activism to get the British Government to do a design change on the APD.

“We are expecting that the British Government will make a response by the end of March as they have indicated to us when we were in London with them late last year,” Bartlett said.