TOURISM Minister Edmund Bartlett is trying to woo DP World, a multinational port operator, to look to Jamaica’s cruise shipping industry for opportunities that will lead to it investing in the island.

Bartlett, who is in the Middle East seeking deals to bolster the country’s tourism product and especially to target new tourist markets, expressed his enthusiasm at the possibilities for collaboration in cruise tourism.

“We are excited that cruise tourism is a big area that Jamaica and the Caribbean can collaborate better with the Middle East in general and certainly Dubai in particular,” Bartlett said after the meeting.

“Dubai Ports [DP World], one of the largest in the world with enormous capacity, is looking for partnerships across the world and Jamaica is a good place to start,” he added.

Cruise aside, Bartlett also revealed that plans are afoot to facilitate tourism cooperation between Jamaica and Dubai following a meeting with H.E. Abdulla Al Saleh, undersecretary of foreign trade and industry in the Ministry of Economy in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

They met recently at the UAE’s Ministry of Economy, which has oversight for tourism in the UAE, where they discussed areas for cooperation in tourism that will redound to the benefit of both countries and their citizens.

Bartlett outlined that: “We concluded that Jamaica and Dubai can collaborate in tourism. Dubai will support us in terms of MICE [meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions] market development, logistics and technology and we will reciprocate in terms of resilience and sustainability, the building out of human capital programmes, product development and marketing.”

A key matter that was also explored during the meeting was the possibility of establishing an outpost of the Jamaica-based Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) in the UAE. This would mark the centre’s latest satellite location, adding to its offices in countries including Kenya, Jordan and Canada.

The tourism minister indicated that further discussions will be held to formalise these arrangements through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) when both countries convene alongside other nations at COP 28 this November.