When fifteen Jamaican Foreign Service officers take up posts this summer in New York, London, Tokyo, Toronto and beyond, they will carry more than diplomatic credentials. They will carry the story of Jamaica, and the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) is making sure they are well-informed.

At the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, the JTB hosted a briefing session on Wednesday, May 27, at its Knutsford Boulevard headquarters for officers preparing for tour-of-duty assignments across three continents. The deployment reads like a map of Jamaica’s most valuable tourism markets: New York, Washington, Miami, Toronto, London, Geneva, Brussels, Berlin, Mexico City, Tokyo, Havana and Port-of-Spain.

“This is what it looks like when two ministries pull in the same direction for one Jamaica,” said Donovan White, Director of Tourism. “Foreign Affairs places our people in the world’s capitals, and Tourism gives them the story to tell when they get there. The country wins twice.”

The session covered the JTB’s strategic mandate and brand positioning, consumer insights and target markets, partnerships and commercial diplomacy, and crisis and risk management, equipping officers to represent the destination accurately and respond credibly when questions arise.

That readiness matters because tourism remains one of the strongest engines of the Jamaican economy, leading earner of foreign exchange and a source of livelihoods for hundreds of thousands across the value chain, from farmers and artisans to drivers and hoteliers.

“Every officer we brief becomes a frontline ambassador for Destination Jamaica, whether or not it appears in their job description,” White said. “A confident answer in a consulate in New York or a trade mission in Tokyo can become a booking, an investment, or an advocate for life.”

The exercise feeds directly into the sector’s 5x8x10 vision, to welcome eight million visitors and earn US$10 billion by 2030.

“We will not reach US$10 billion from Jamaica alone,” White said. “We reach it in the rooms where decisions are made. These include the embassies, the trade missions, and the consulates where our officers sit every day. Diplomacy and tourism are partners, and this is that partnership in action.”

The briefing continues a long-standing collaboration in which the Ministry invites the JTB to brief officers ahead of each posting cycle.

White put it plainly: “Diplomacy opens doors. Tourism walks through them.”