KINGSTON, Jamaica – Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett, had brief discussions in Spain today with President of the Dominican Republic (DR), Luis Abinader, and other top DR officials on strengthening regional tourism relations.

This will in part result in a new level of multi-destination tourism, aimed at redefining how tourism functions in the region, according to Senior Advisor and Tourism Strategist, Delano Seiveright.

The move came while the Minister and a small team of Jamaican tourism experts attended FITUR, the world’s largest annual international travel and tourism tradeshow, which is currently being held in Madrid, Spain.

“Jamaica and the Dominican Republic will enter a new era of co-operation, that is collaboration and cooperation in tourism development, rather than the traditional competition that has been a feature of the pre-COVID tourism arrangements in the Caribbean,”

“The country’s President is here at FITUR for an entire week along with Minister David Collado, the Minister of Tourism, and the commitment is for us to work together to build tourism in the region,” Bartlett said.

The leaders also discussed the possibility of launching a multi-destination marketing campaign, one of three legacy outcomes from the November, 2017 United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) global conference in Montego Bay. “The campaign urged Caribbean governments, and the private sector, to collaborate to advance regional integration through the promotion and harmonization of legislation on air connectivity, visa facilitation, and product development,” he explained.

“Leading this programme is an exciting feature of the way forward for tourism in the Caribbean, and the essence of this will lead, in fact, to a level of multi-destination tourism that will redefine the way tourism functions in the region. But more importantly, it will set the stage for expanding the market within our area to meet the larger and more exciting players within the global industry and attract the mega-airlines that bring long-haul passengers into the Caribbean,” Bartlett added.

“We are excited about the prospects of a new era for tourism development, and Jamaica and the Dominican Republic are at the centre of this,” he added.

Bartlett also shared that debt management and funding were at the heart of the discussions he had at FITUR, to help stakeholders who were hardest hit by the pandemic to rebuild.

He also spoke to the President of Banco Popular, Ignacio Alvarez, which is the largest tourism bank in the Caribbean, to discuss elements of debt management in a sector that is hugely affected by credit arrangements because of the pandemic and the halt in economic activity within the tourism space for over a year.

Balford Henry