The conversation continued at the Billion-Dollar Breakfast Summit, held at The Pepperpot on the Oleander Wing at Half Moon, A RockResort in Montego Bay, last Friday. The Jamaica Tourist Board and The Arthur Wylie Foundation invited participants to share ideas and discuss challenges in the tourism sector, and alternatives to alleviate these obstacles. The welcome segment segued into a discussion on ways to improve tourism in Jamaica and sustain a greater influx of visitors to our shores. Jason Hall, the Jamaica Tourist Board deputy director of tourism, attractions, cruise & events, spoke of building connections with Cuba, plans to introduce direct routes to Jamaica from China – now recognised as the leading outgoing tourist market; and to develop sport tourism in Jamaica, “[We] enjoy a tremendous legacy of excellence in sports, and, combined with the capacity that we have in the destination presently, we certainly have the opportunity to create a strong sport tourism product. The Jamaica Tourist Board has actually created a unit called Jamaica Sports. Though there’s a lot of planning involved, we’re well on our way to establish Jamaica as the leading sports destination in the Caribbean.”

Following Hall’s address, Richard Powell, co-founder and senior managing director of AP Capital Partners and APC Holdings, highlighted three key factors in fostering growth. “There are three things that Jamaica needs most: education, jobs, and a better, more defined collaboration between the private and public sectors to help solve our issues. I’m excited and optimistic because the people at this brunch have the ability to make these things happen.”

William Mahfood, president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, opened a discussion on one of the reasons Jamaica has a bad rap internationally. Mahfood explained “…one of the biggest challenges we face as a country, in terms of Jamaica’s image, is that there are Jamaicans living abroad who, to a large extent, have a negative view of Jamaica and share that view with their American colleagues, friends, etc. We need to appeal to all our family and friends in the diaspora that Jamaica is a safe place; crimes against tourists are extremely low in comparison to other countries.” Wednesday Social brings tourism in perspective.