JAMAICA has been voted the Caribbean’s Best Selling Destination for the 11th consecutive year by readers of the influential travel magazine Recommend.

The results of the magazine’s Readers’ Choice Awards are published in its December edition which described Jamaica’s tourism product as strong “with effective leadership and strong outside support” that allowed the island to survive the travel industry’s changes and challenges over the past decade.

Director of Tourism and Jamaica Tourist Board Chairman John Lynch attributed the island’s preference among the magazine’s readers to the country’s symbiotic relationship with travel agents.

“We have been consistent with our support with travel agents and we have never wavered from that,” Recommend quoted Lynch. “It’s almost a love affair that we have had with travel agents.”

Lynch told the magazine that part of the love agents feel for Jamaica stems from benefits like familiarisation trips (FAMs), a method used by many destinations to give travel agents first-hand updates on products.

“In the month of September this year we brought 2,000 travel agents to Jamaica just to look and see,” the magazine quoted Lynch.

That kind of relationship, he said, helps Jamaica to meet challenges, such as those that arose after the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States that seriously affected leisure travel; or the civil unrest in a section of Kingston in May this year when gunmen loyal to accused drug and arms trafficker Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke launched attacks on the state that led to an incursion into Tivoli Gardens by police and soldiers.

“We relied very heavily on our travel agent partners [during that time],” Recommend quoted Lynch. “We relied on them to send out correct information and worked with them consistently. We never veered from that.”

The formula, the magazine noted, worked, as travel agents were able to spread the message that Jamaica’s tourist resort areas were unaffected by the violence.

The magazine also reported Lynch as saying that Jamaica’s tourism product was going through “amazing changes” and that travel agents can look forward to more FAMs in 2011.

“I hope I will not sound too proud, but Jamaica has the best product in the Caribbean — our infrastructure, our airports, our roads to major resort areas, our hotels,” Lynch said and complimented the private sector as he pointed out that the hotels “also have a very close working relationship with travel agents”.

That point was reinforced by Recommend which highlighted the fact that Sandals and Beaches resorts “were also big winners in this year’s Readers’ Choice Awards”.