Bartlett asks for US$10 million to do damage control
Published:Friday | June 4, 2010 | 12:00 AM
The Ministry of Tourism is seeking US$10 million to launch a public-relations campaign to mitigate the fallout that the recent violence in western Kingston has had on the tourism product.
The industry is reporting losses of US$350 million.
Edmund Bartlett, the tourism minister, told the Financial Gleaner this week that he had made a submission to Cabinet begging the money to conduct a nine-month public-relations blitz to counter the bad publicity caused from the unrest, which was centred largely in Prime Minister Bruce Golding's western Kingston constituency.
"We have developed, along with our stakeholders, a very intensive sales/marketing and promotions programme to cover the next nine months," he explained.
The marketing pushback, Bartlett announced, will start this weekend and will involve a number of fami-liarisation visits to Jamaica by tour operators, to demonstrate that the product is still intact and safe for vacation and business travellers.
He said he will be bringing to the island, media personnel and will utilise social media including Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and others.
Bartlett said a huge public relations programme would be rolled out in the three major markets - The United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
"We want to start rolling this weekend, on the (June) fourth, with our tour operators and trade partners," he said.
Pressed on when the funding would be forthcoming, Bartlett hinted that some of the money would have to be accessed through the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF).
"The Tourism Enhancement Fund cannot absorb all of that," he said. "We don't know, bearing in mind that we have strong constraints from the IMF programme, it is going to require some sacrifices on the part of everybody to meet this US$10-million budget."
Bartlett said he would also be seeking the assistance of the Jamaican diaspora to help do damage control.
"The truth is that the Diaspora has been extremely negative, they represent that moment of truth, they represent the customer meeting the product for the first time," he said.
"It is critical that they continue to give positive images about Jamaica in all its forms, because that for us is advertisement we can't pay for. The diaspora for us is not just a market, it represent nine to 10 per cent of our total market," he said.
The programme would also involve all the Jamaican missions overseas.
Wayne Cummings, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourism Association (JHTA), underscored the importance of this campaign to do damage control.
"Ten million is the bare minimum that we must have made available to us to be able to make a dent into this thing," he said. "If we don't get it the alternative is not good."
He said the industry has seen a fallout in forward bookings.
"We believe that our fallout for forward bookings have been extensive," he said, but was unable to quantify it. "The phones in the call centres have not been ringing as they ought to."
Cummings was also in agreement that advertising in the markets should be suspended at this time.
"When you go out there right now and tell people to come to Jamaica because everything is rosy, they are going to say, 'are you for real?' We would be throwing the country's good money ... . So it is best to hold off and preserve it for when it is the right time to run it," he said.
The JHTA president is also not ruling out further discounting to stimulate the market.
"That was discussed but it was not something that we went down the road on but I can tell you that if a hotel or business sees that it is not getting enough traction, it is going to do what is necessary to get volume," he said.
The sector has already been doing heavy discounting up to 30-50 per cent since the economic downturn.