THE Destination Assurance Framework and Strategy (DAFS) is to be submitted to Cabinet for consideration by the end of the third quarter of the 2023/24 financial year.

Senior director for strategic planning in the Ministry of Tourism, Astley Henry said upon approval by Cabinet it will be tabled in Parliament and become a White Paper.

DAFS was finalised as a Green Paper in February 2022 and approved by Cabinet in May 2022.

It serves as a long-term blueprint to guide the ministry and its partners to strengthen, further develop, and implement strategies that will ensure continuous improvement in the delivery and management of quality throughout the tourism value chain.

The tourism ministry held the Kingston, St Andrew, and St Catherine public consultation on DAFS at The Girl Guides Association of Jamaica on June 16.

Henry said DAFS seeks to improve quality standards across all sectors, for enhanced visitor experience.

“This is a consultation document that has been produced, looking at the core components of the DAFS in many different areas — safety, environment infrastructure, among other areas. We are sharing this with a broad range of stakeholders to validate the content [and] understand the priorities among the various areas for the stakeholders,” he stated.

“We will use the feedback produced to finalise the document into a White Paper which will be submitted to Cabinet — firstly for approval then tabled in Parliament as a White Paper, which is a statement of the Government’s policy position in this area,” he added.

Henry noted that the overall objective is to “guarantee a certain kind of experience for every visitor that comes to Jamaica…it is to guarantee a minimum quality standard, leading to tourists [being] delighted with their visit and staying longer, spending more, and critically — to return to Jamaica”.

The primary objective of the national Destination Assurance Framework Strategy is to improve tourism compliance and establish a quality and sustainable certification programme for tourism enterprises and local destinations.

“The certification programme is absolutely critical. Part of this process will be to identify the most feasible way of ensuring their certification, to ensure a reasonable measure of compliance,” Henry said.

The Tourism Product Development Company has been tasked as the oversight agency for the framework’s implementation.