The Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) says the just-concluded Jamaica Product Exchange (JAPEX) provided the ideal forum to engage global media and buyers and expose new and emerging markets to the rich and diverse Jamaican tourism product.

The JTB says the event allowed it to further explore and expand its reach into new markets. “The landscape of the future of tourism is tied to new and emerging markets, growing passenger loads from untapped market segments. As the marketing agency for destination Jamaica, the JTB is one of the key drivers of this expansion thrust,” the agency said.

According to the JTB, JAPEX hosted over 80 travel agents and tour operators from Japan, USA, Canada, Continental Europe, Latin America and India and approximately 20 media outlets from similar markets to include the Caribbean.

The JAPEX media breakfast, held at Jewel Grande and hosted by Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett, was a key component of sharing information with the journalists in an exclusive setting. In acknowledging the sterling work and support of the media to the success of destination Jamaica, Bartlett said: “We want to say how very happy we are that the media continues to be a critical part of this process of enabling the transmission of our ideas, our actions, our policies, our programmes and our processes to the world.”

He continued: “The world continues to know about us, to hear about us, and appreciate the new experiences that are had here in Jamaica through your lens, through your writing. You represent that point of connectivity between us and the marketplace.”

The efforts of the JTB are directly linked to the success of the destination, and the intentional partnerships with leading media houses, television networks, travel agents and tour operator partnerships, have resulted in significant growth for the local sector.

For Director of Tourism Donovan White, JAPEX 2023 was very critical for the island as the collective media and buyers had very meaningful engagements.

“When you think that this is the first gathering since 2019, the timing couldn’t be more critical. We have rebounded with such impressive arrivals and earnings and we have launched our recent ‘Come Back’ marketing campaign,” he said.

He added: “JAPEX was the appropriate platform to invite representatives from the markets that we are pursuing. We exploited the opportunity to show off our refreshed and growing product offering as the Jamaica Tourist Board played host to scores of media, tour operators and travel agents. The feedback has been extremely positive and the publications and bookings will put Jamaica in front of an even larger audience.”

New routes

In addition to the scheduled business-to-business meetings, there was a curated itinerary showcasing accommodation, service providers and attraction partners to the media and buyer partners. The representation from, continues to expand our footprint across the globe. These collaborations are resulting in Jamaica’s story being told to a cumulative audience across eastern Europe, Asian, the Caribbean, North and Latin America.

During the media breakfast, Canada Jetlines formally announced the beginning of its service this winter from Canada, thus increasing Jamaica’s passenger load from that North American region, which is in line with Jamaica’s tourism growth strategy. Bartlett also announced that new routes are coming out of Latin America, and he is in talks to build connectivity out of new target markets with strong potential for growth such as India, the Middle East and West Africa.

Local partners are already talking about the high quality meetings and are looking forward with optimism to the benefits that will redound from their networking and the exposure of their product to through international.

For the participants, attending JAPEX 2023 after a hiatus caused by the pandemic was a good refresher for them as so much development has taken place and still more on the horizon to include new accommodation partners and the expansion of existing room stock. They are now empowered with updated and new knowledge about Jamaica to share with new and longstanding audiences.