Jamaica’s Tourism Minister is all set to bring growth in the island’s tourism industry, one of the main generators of foreign exchange, by developing its sea ports.
Edmund Bartlett, the Tourism Minister of Jamaica, has pledged to grow the country’s tourism industry. The tourism industry is one of Jamaica’s highest generators of foreign exchanges, according to Jamaicaobserver.
At present, the country witnesses 1.3 Million cruise ship passengers. The Tourism Minister sees the possibility of increasing the incoming cruise ship tourists to Jamaica with around 2 Million by the year 2009 with expectations to grow the facilities of the port, and with new sites such as Falmouth, having the capacity to berth the world’s largest cruise ship and bring around 9,000 passengers per week.
Edmund Bartlett also said that the industry has established agreements to "facilitate an increase in both scheduled and charter services, especially from the European market and South America" to increase the number of tourists inflow in the country.
Jamaica has many attractions for the tourists - the sea surrounding the island with a number of well-known beaches, and the famous music festival is one of the chief attractions for the tourists. The South Coast in Jamaica is another hot spot which attracts many people - it has the country’s major wild life. Another renowned place to visit in the country is the Bamboo Avenue - giant bamboo’s grove.
The Minister for Tourism said, “Right now the most urgent need is for us is to grow the industry by double-digit levels on an annualized basis over the next five years. We would like to increase our stop over arrivals as well as earnings. The objective is to create a critical mass of between 3 to 5 Million stopover arrivals and to have 2 Million cruise passengers coming through annually”, according to the Jamaicaobserver.
A Senior Research Analyst at RNCOS said, “The tourism industry in Jamaica is growing impressively. Since the island is beautiful, many tourists visit the place and will continue to come in future as well. But the economy of the country is posing challenge to the industry. Great deal of money is required to maintain various tourist spots. For this, Jamaica is depending upon foreign countries to make investments in the country’s tourism industry. Hence, the Jamaican government should take important steps to make the economy strong”.
Related Market Research Reports:
Indian Tourism Industry Analysis
South African Tourism Sector Analysis
Opportunities in Malaysian Tourism Industry (2007-2009)
