MONTEGO BAY, St James — Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett and a team of Jamaica Tourist Board officials, now participating in the Arabian Travel Market (ATM), will hold discussions with four of the world’s largest airlines with an intent to woo them to operate between the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and the Caribbean.

ATM, the leading event for the travel industry in the Middle East, is being staged in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from May 9–12.

Held at the Dubai World Trade Centre, the tourism showcase is expected to welcome more than 20,000 visitors from 112 countries and over 1,500 exhibiting companies over the four days.

Bartlett argued that “this engagement in the Arabian Travel Market is loaded with potential for future investments in tourism for Jamaica, for aviation connection, and most importantly, for tourism flows”.

“The three largest gateways of the world are located in this area for aviation. That’s Doha, Qatar; Riyadh and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and of course Dubai. These three centres have two-thirds of the global population for aviation utilising them. And to connect this area with the Caribbean, and Jamaica in particular, is critical for the future,” Bartlett stated.

“So we are the leaders in this regard and we are connecting the Caribbean with this critical area for global tourism. We are excited about the prospects of the meetings that are scheduled with the four of the largest airlines in the world — Etihad, Emirates, Saudia and Tata. We are also meeting with Royal Jordanian airlines to make the fifth and that will give us a coverage that hopefully will inure to the benefit, not just of Jamaica, but the entire Caribbean area.”

The tourism minister also disclosed that there will be discussions surrounding the possibility of air activity with Kingston being a critical consideration for a hub for one of the mega aircraft from one of the Gulf countries.

He added: “We are also meeting with the DP World. We’re meeting with MR, MR is the largest hospitality investment group in the Middle East. And they are looking with us on St Thomas and Portland.”

DP World is an Emirati multinational logistics company based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It specialises in cargo logistics, port terminal operations, maritime services and free trade zones.

Participation in the ATM comes on the heels of Minister Bartlett’s visit to the Middle East in February to facilitate high-level engagements. These engagements included meetings with Jordan’s Minister of Tourism Al Fayez, as well as the launch of the ‘Global Tourism Resilience Day’ by the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC), a unit created by the Jamaica Tourist Board.

“We have established the infrastructure, and we will continue to engage the marketplace to accomplish [our] critical objective. To do this, the Jamaica Tourist Board and Jamaica Vacations Ltd (JAMVAC) will intensify marketing efforts to position Jamaica as the destination of choice for travellers from markets such as the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East,” Bartlett was quoted as saying in a release from the ministry of tourism.

“The Jamaican tourism sector’s ability to quickly recover from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been remarkable. The country continues to exude robust appeal, with the tourism arrival figures showing strong signs of the industry rebounding strongly since the Jamaican government’s announcement to introduce a series of COVID-19 safety measures then, subsequently withdrawing the Disaster Risk Management Act in March 2022,” the release added.

“The results have been positive, with Minister Bartlett projecting that by the end of 2022 arrivals are expecting to total 3.2 million.”