DEVON House in St Andrew was on Monday designated Jamaica’s first Gastronomy Centre, a move Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett said would allow tourists to experience the country’s culinary offerings through packaged tours.

Gastronomy — the practice or art of choosing, cooking, and eating good food — has a US$150-billion international market and is one of the fastest-growing reasons for people to travel, Bartlett said in talking points issued to the media ahead of the launch at the 136-year-old national monument which is home to restaurants, bars, souvenir and snack shops.Government, through the Tourism Enhancement Fund, has, since 2012, invested $151 million to refurbish the landmark in an effort to make it financially sustainable.Bartlett, in championing this decision to venture into the gastronomy market under the Tourism Linkages Network, said it serves to strengthen Jamaica’s competitiveness and to diversify the country’s tourism product to generate higher growth rates in both visitor arrivals and earnings.“The gastronomy network is also engaged in mapping a comprehensive list of restaurants, food festivals, food tours and other culinary information which will allow visitors to easily locate and get information on the island’s best culinary experience,” he said.In addition to that, Bartlett said Government is expecting to collaborate with tourism partners to boost the number of quality food festivals and constructively integrate food experiences with existing flagships.These efforts, he said, will help to position Jamaica as a first-class tourist and gastronomic destination.From there, it is hopeD that the network can be used to strengthen the framework for multi-destination tourism within the Caribbean.Already plans are in place for this development with Jamaica, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic.“We must grasp opportunities for growth that secure higher yields per visitor, while building competitive industries and creating rewarding careers for Jamaicans,” he urged, adding that product diversification is the only way to achieve growth targets for the sector.Government is hoping to secure five million visitors by 2021; US$5 billion in tourism earnings; increase the total direct jobs to 125,000 and 15,000 new rooms.“Our culinary culture is going to help us to achieve these goals and our gastronomy network is mandated to guide and grow this subsector in a steady and sustainable manner,” said Bartlett.Chief executive officer of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica Dennis Chung has described the initiative as “really good”, but said more needs to be done.“…You can’t wait on tourism to happen; you have to create tourism. So you have to build on the advantages you have and one of the advantages is our food. Why not build on that? People will come here for that… [and] we need to go further. While they are doing this, which is good, they must also maintain places like the Hip Strip, which is a dump. That doesn’t make any sense. You’re killing the goose that lays the golden egg,” Chung told the

Jamaica Observer at the launch.The Hip Strip is the main entertainment and shopping district on Gloucester Avenue in Montego Bay catering mostly to tourists.A total of 1.58 million visitors arrived in the island between January and April this year. Of that number, 795,000 were stopover arrivals and 784,000 cruise arrivals. This earned the country a record US$1 billion, a six per cent increase in earnings over the same period last year.