Bartlett banking on stakeholders’ support for quality delivery guide

MINISTER OF Tourism Edmund Bartlett is anticipating a favourable response from stakeholders and other interests in Portland to the Destination Assurance Framework Strategy (DAFS), which he says will greatly enhance the island’s tourism product.The DAFS serves as a long-term blueprint to guide the Ministry of Tourism and its partners to strengthen, further develop and implement strategies that will ensure continuous improvement in the delivery and management of quality throughout the tourism value chain.

Speaking with The Gleaner on Wednesday, Bartlett said, “Stakeholders now have to buy into and sign into this whole thing of making Jamaica safe and secure. And so what tourism does for us is to bring foreign exchange so that we can buy the things that we don’t have here to make our lives better, and to improve social and economic wealth,” he said.

According to Bartlett, COVID-19 disrupted normal activities worldwide, which later paved the way for change, especially in tourism.

“So visitors, who now want to travel, are demanding something new. They want to go to destinations that are secure and where they feel safe.

“And it is in that strain that Jamaica thought that we needed to build out a whole policy framework and a set of rules and practices and strategies that would respond to that call, on the part of the new visitors, who are coming to our shores, to feel safe, feel secure. And to feel that they are having a seamless access to the destination,” he added.

He outlined several elements which were key to the process, among them access to roads. He said visitors must be able to traverse roadways from the airport to the hotel or from the hotel to the attraction and from the attraction to the beaches.

“Also the providers of transportation are important to us. As without them there will be no tourism. Forty two per cent of the expenditure of a visitor in any destination is on food. So suddenly farmers and all the food providers are very important people, because without food there cannot be any tourism. The manufactures are also important to the success of tourism.”

He noted the huge potential of the resort town of Port Antonio and that it is poised for growth, especially with the ongoing road development project, which should provide easier and smoother access for tour bus operators.