JTB teams with e-Group Communications on Land X-Change

For the second time in the past five years, the Jamaica Tourist Board’s (JTB) Groups and Conventions Department, situated in its Miami Office, Florida, teamed up with the influential e-Group Communications to stage the Land X-Change programme in Jamaica.

The JTB and e-Group jointly organised and flew over 100 top incentive planners into the country to participate in the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) event over a four-day span, recently, which formed part of the Land X-Change initiative.

The event was primarily structured to allow the planners to experience Jamaica’s tourism product.

And, with planners having intimate knowledge and experience of destinations such as Jamaica, a preferred vacation hub in the Caribbean, it makes marketing and selling holiday packages for Jamaica a far more seamless exercise.

At the conclusion of the programme, the attendees unanimously agreed that Jamaica delivered above and beyond expectations.

First, the JTB and e-Group wooed the planners and buyers from across the globe to visit and experience what Jamaica has to offer. Once on the island, they were treated with the best – tantalising cuisine; cultural exchanges; translation of snippets of our dialect; flawless entertainment packages; shopping experiences; a sail on a catamaran; and exploring rocky terrains via ATV bikes.

“Wow! Jamaica rocked,” remarked John Woolcock, groups and conventions manager at the JTB (Miami), as he, his personal assistant, Margaret Clarke, and visitors exited the precincts of the Rose Hall Great House in Montego Bay on the final night of the event.

“Land X-Change 2025 was a very important programme for the MICE market in Jamaica, in that it allowed us to have brought in planners on the island who are actively sourcing warm weather destinations for their groups’ client base,” Woolcock stated.

Addressing a large gathering, e-Group’s President and CEO Bob Burke said: “This has been an amazing event and now you know why we say we’re part of something extraordinary. It’s all about business when you think of the X-Change, and I’ve heard nothing but good news from everyone who attended. The Jamaica Tourist Board has been a phenomenal sponsor of the X-Change and we thank them wholeheartedly.”

Meeting planners, also known as ‘buyers’, exclusively focus on major corporate conglomerates in North America, which often reward their employees with pre-arranged annual all-expense paid incentive vacation packages globally.

For decades, the JTB’s Groups and Conventions Department (GCD) has had the primary responsibility of continuously identifying, informing and engaging thousands of meeting planners about the Jamaican tourism product and offerings.

The GCD has earned worldwide recognition and accolades for decisively fulfilling their mandate above expectation, which has resulted in Jamaica being the recipient of multiple large groups year-on-year.