By Ainsworth Morris

The Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) has appointed Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest man and one of Jamaica’s most valued treasures, as Jamaica’s Global Tourism Ambassador.

The grand announcement was made by Donovan White, Director of Tourism, Thursday evening at Devon House during the 70th milestone anniversary celebration of JTB’s existence. 

Bolt said: “For me, it’s always an honour to represent my country. I’ve always tried to represent my country to the best of my ability. I must thank the [Jamaica] Tourist Board, the minister and everybody who was a part of this to make this happen.

“I must say, it’s about time. We have a three-year deal, but we’re going to try to make it a lifetime. We’re going to work on that. For me, I’m looking forward to making an impact as always, to put Jamaica to the world, try to represent the country as best as possible, and I’ll continue pushing and trying to make Jamaica the number one. We’re number one, and we’ll try to keep it there as high as possible, and just continue and make Jamaica proud and everyone here proud, so thanks for the support as always and thanks to the Tourist Board.” 

Present to shake his hand on stage immediately after the announcement was Olivia Grange, Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, whom Edmund Bartlett, Minister of Tourism described as the “the mother of the process” and the “energy behind” that signing between the JTB and the retired sprinter, who is widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time.

Following his announcement of the deal with Bolt, White said the marketer in him wanted to get excited, the businessman in him wanted to stay calm, and the father in him wanted to jump out and be receptive.
“We wanted to sound off 2025 properly [and] in a way that only one Jamaican, we believe, can do that the way we want it done,” White said before adding that the JTB will find Bolt a good cast to work with and be featured in the JTB’s next fully-integrated global campaign that will be launched in August. 

He also noted that the Ministry of Tourism and its affiliated agencies have been working on fully integrated campaigns to tell Jamaica’s story with technology, and it is as a result of traversing that space, Bolt was engaged to help create content.

Bolt is expected to make his first appearance next week as Jamaica’s Global Tourism Ambassador in New York, where approximately 284,000 Jamaicans have migrated, when the JTB celebrates their 70th anniversary in that city with a high population of immigrants from the island of Jamaica. 

“Usain will be there with us throughout to help to build back this great Jamaica’s economy that we know must go to the places that we should,” Bartlett said, for his part.

This is not the first partnership between Bolt and the JTB. In previous years, and after breaking his first world record in the 100m in 2008 when he posted a time of 9.72 secs in New York, and then lowered it to 9.69 secs at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, he did JTB advertisements which were played at the event, and in memory of the milestone achievements of the tourism bureau, JTB.