Jamaica Calling on Diaspora to Assist with Tourism

The new Bruce Golding administration in Jamaica has appealed to nationals in the Diaspora for help in boosting the island’s essential tourism sector.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett told a press conference at the Jamaica Consulate in mid-town Manhattan Wednesday that nationals have a very important role to play in national development. “I’ve come here to ask you to help me,” he said in his first official visit to New York.

“The Diaspora is central to the mission of building tourism and making tourism the driver of the economy,” he added. “We have recognized that tourism is the industry in which Jamaica has both comparative and competitive advantage,” Mr. Bartlett continued.

Bartlett pointed out that Jamaican nationals in the United States “define” the country to potential visitors and help to “determine in their minds whether Jamaica is the place to go or the place to shun”.

The Tourism Minister, therefore, said Jamaicans in the Diaspora are the country’s “best marketers and ambassadors”.