Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett is seeking to diversify Jamaica’s tourist markets and eyes India as a potential country to pull visitors from after he and his team pound the pavement at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, United Arab Emirates this week.

“The Indian market initiatives are now fully on stream. We met with our partners and are beginning engagements later this year. There is a huge market for weddings, there is a confluence of cricket, a rapidly growing middle and upper middle class, over time better flight connectivity, and a very active Indian community in Jamaica itself will drive growth from this increasingly lucrative market,” he said.

Jamaica gets the bulk of its visitors from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.  

Minister Bartlett arrived in Dubai on the weekend ahead for the Arabian Travel Market, the largest tourism tradeshow in the Middle East accompanied by high-ranking team members, Director of Tourism, Donovan White and Senior Advisor and Strategist in the Ministry of Tourism, Delano Seiveright.

Jamaica’s new markets initiatives was initially heavily focused on South America for which significant gains were made just prior to the Covid 19 pandemic with new nonstop flights by South America’s largest air carrier LATAM between Lima, Peru and Montego Bay, Jamaica and up to 11 weekly flights between Panama City and Jamaica by COPA.

The Pandemic curbed those gains with Minister Bartlett recently mandating his team to re-engage new markets growth efforts.

The Ministry of Tourism and it’s Jamaica Tourist Board are now focused on rebuilding the South American tourist markets, with specific focus on Chile, Argentina, Colombia and Peru and are also placing special attention on India and sections of the Middle East for new market growth.

Bartlett’s Dubai itinerary includes a host of meetings, including with top government and private sector leaders as well as investors.

Among them: Krishna Rao, Founding Partner and Co-CIO at ARP Global Capital; COP28 President-designate, Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber; the G-77 and China Ministers of Tourism; Senior Vice President, Mastercard, Andrea Prazakova; UAE’s Minister of Economy, H.E. Abdulla Bin TouqAl Marri; Senior officials from Emirates Airlines; and Vice Minister of Tourism, HE Ghada Shalaby of Egypt. Minister Bartlett will also participate in an International Travel and Health Insurance (ITIC) Ministerial panel and Resilience Council sessions.