Sixty Jamaican couples in the diaspora will have a glorious opportunity to enjoy a Jamaican vacation as guests of the Jamaican government. This initiative is a special promotion marking the country’s 60th year of independence.
Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett made the announcement last Thursday while addressing diaspora members on the monthly “Let’s Connect” forum hosted by US Ambassador Audrey Marks. The lucky Jamaicans will get their vacation between mid-August and mid-December for US$60.00 per night in a program called 60/60. According to the tourism minister, the committee continues to iron out the details. He said, however, that the Minister of Sports, Culture, and Entertainment, Olivia’ Babsy’ Grange, will speak further on the promotion and give more details.
Mr. Bartlett told the online gathering that: “The invitation to the diaspora to come home is always evident. We are creating a very special package for the diaspora for Jamaica’s 60th anniversary to celebrate with 60 Jamaican couples. We hope to use it as a point not to lure everybody in but to indicate that the 60 means something, and we want you to be a special person in that anniversary celebration.”
Jamaica needs diaspora investment.
In his address to the Jamaican diaspora, Mr. Barlett also appealed for more investment from the overseas Jamaica population. “We need to be investing in capital formation, investing in new enterprises so Jamaica can build its capacity to respond to the demand that tourism brings,” he said.
He noted that tourism is an extractive industry because Jamaica has not produced the required agricultural supplies in the volume, consistency, and price point required. He stated that the consumption patterns that drive the industry are by 24×7 cycles, and guests get fed at three to five times the consumption levels of locals. “It is important that the highest level of production and output is available at all times,” he continued.
“We bring together, therefore, the potential for increasing the production patterns within or country, and that one has to be driven by investments. Local investments or partnerships, public/private partnerships. So we need investments in the manufacturing of goods. Various goods that are utilized in the industry.”
To underscore the need for investments, Mr. Bartlett stated that the demand for agricultural produce is at J$360 million per month while manufactured goods are somewhere in the region of J$400 billion annually. He also pointed to energy, communication, financial, insurance, health, and transportation demand.
Mr. Bartlett challenged the diaspora that if Jamaica built out that capacity to supply all of these demands and use local goods in the main, or even import but with value-added, the island would be a wealthy country.
“To do this, it is not just the local entrepreneurs, but we have a diaspora, we have a commonwealth, with enormous wealth, experience, capabilities, talent, and skills, but more important, enormous connectivity with communities, governments, financial institutions, and universities. So knowledge is available. And the utilization of that knowledge to be converted into practical things that are of value to our destination is what the driving call to our diaspora is,” he said.
The Ministry of Tourism has also partnered with local hotelier to launch the ‘Rediscover Jamaica’ campaign as an initiative to encourage domestic tourism. This initiative provides vacation packages that allow locals to stay at various hotels at drastically reduced rates.
