KINGSTON, Jamaica — Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett says his ministry is investing some $20 million towards the further development of the gastronomy industry during this financial year, as studies have shown that local cuisine is a significant reason tourists visit the island.

Bartlett, who was speaking at the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) Culinary Expo held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston on Thursday, has charged the Tourism Linkages Network, within his ministry, with the responsibility to lead the development of the local gastronomy offerings as a premiere product of Jamaica’s tourism product.

In a release today, Bartlett disclosed that the Network has already spent approximately $11.9 million during the last financial year on initiatives to improve and better market the island’s culinary offerings.

Some of these initiatives include: The Blue Mountain Coffee Festival; the Culinary Ambassador Programme; Taste Jamaica Mobile Application and the development of Devon House as a Gastronomy Centre.  

Bartlett believes that the Gastronomy Network is already making positive strides, as Jamaica “has now established itself as the premier gastronomy destination of the Caribbean” and can boast being named “the only country in the region last year, to have an exposition which the United Nations World Tourism Organisation calls the Gastronomy Prototype.”  

Special focus is also being placed by the Tourism Ministry on culinary training through their Jamaica Centre for Tourism Innovation (JCTI).  This Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF)-driven programme, recently saw over 150 graduates receiving accreditation as hospitality supervisors and in Hospitality Industry Analytics; as well as American Culinary Federation certification and American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute designation, the release said.

 “We wanted to give our first cohort in the JCTI certification so that they can be more qualified practitioners of their art. This programme will ensure that we won’t have to be importing chefs from across the world, because we will be producing our own, here in Jamaica,” said Bartlett.

In further explaining the increased focus being placed on gastronomy tourism by his ministry, Bartlett also stated that, “industry leaders have identified food, or what the world defines as gastronomy, as the number one point of differentiation in experiential tourism.

According to Bartlett, 88 per cent of the world travels for food experiences and last year 44 per cent of the expenditure of the visitor was a food experience.

“So, if $1.3 trillion was spent by visitors across the world, then $600 billion of that was spent on food experiences,” he said.

He also shared that studies done by the Jamaica Tourist Board revealed that “the number one word that defined Jamaica across social media platforms by our visitors, was food. This was followed by music and love.”