By: Kimberly Ramkhalawan
Contributor
November 20, 2020
A Jamaican cabinet minister touts the country’s “Resilient Corridors” as a way to get the country ready to stand up tall to the post COVID-19 era.
Tourism might have been hard hit in 2020 due to the Coronavirus, but Jamaica says it is ready. While Jamaica was one of the first nations in the Caribbean to get hit with the virus earlier this year, it’s also been one of the first to reopen its borders to tourists.
To showcase just how much they are prepared to welcome back an influx of visitors, it was sure to host its Jamaica Product Exchange, JAPEX Live 2020 event this year, albeit a virtual one.
The event which spans some thirty years of existence, puts on a show annually highlighting Jamaica’s tourism market. This year’s discussions came even as countries such as England, parts of Europe and the United States are set to embark on another lockdown period with borders closed preventing travel. These countries marking a large percentage of the travel market to destinations such as Jamaica.
In launching the two-day virtual event that ran November 9 and 10, tourism minister, Edmund Bartlett, says the Jamaica model aims at taking a proactive approach in reopening the tourism aspect of its economy in a time the world is grappling to come to terms with a virus that has been ravaging the sector for most of the year.
But what is on everyone’s mind and the underscored theme during the event was how can tourists have the full Jamaican experience despite the lingering virus.
Introducing just how Jamaica intends to do so, Bartlett made mention of its “Resilient Corridors”, a term used to brand how the Jamaican Tourism Board will ensure a safe visitor experience, one that is said to have already started garnering international attention with its high benchmarks set. The corridors refer to its designated safety zones for travelers which allow for multiple accommodation facilities where persons can visit more than one resort region on the island. The corridors are said to cover 85 percent of the island’s tourism assets, spanning from Negril to Port Antonio, while the ‘resilient corridors’ term is said to also be part of the campaign called “Jamaica Cares”, carded for launch later in November.
Bartlett spoke of the layers of safety it offers its guests coming to its shores, through the introduction of its travel and emergency programme specifically tailored to visitors. This programme offers medical care to tourists in the event healthcare is needed while on the island.
This year’s event, got kickstarted with several virtual displays and booths, where an endless array of local providers of tourism products were privy to showcase their services and what they had to offer. The show despite a virtual one was packed with activity and interactive sessions, boards for persons perusing the expo online. Interested parties could take a virtual tour of its “corridors” with a simple click on a map of the island, leading you to a video of all the destinations and attractions, featuring the culture and cuisine unique to each particular region on the island. Online discussions including one-on-one talks with service providers could be arranged via its media board and network lounge. Plenary sessions were called breakout sessions where stakeholders in the industry locally and internationally were sure to engage talks on various areas. These sessions while pre-recorded, targeted topics on travelling to Jamaica during the time of the pandemic, to how it intended to ensure its Sports and Entertainment events were still viable on its calendar.
The high-tech virtual expo included Feature speaker, World Travel and Tourism Council President and chief executive officer, Gloria Guevera, who says critical to setting the standard of safety across the board for all providers, from airlines, governments, car rentals, hoteliers, to employees in the sector, required the implementation of something called a ‘Stamp’. She described the stamp as representing the highest set of protocols in all of its operations aimed at optimizing consumer confidence.
This was echoed by Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association President, Pablo Jose Torres Sojo, who outlined comprehensive guidelines and checklists as vital to it being a success. While it all seems like complex rules and regulations to navigate, one critical requirement is a negative test three days prior to arrival in Jamaica and a negative test three days after entering the country. Ensuring compliance, Deanne Keating, Director of Product Quality and Training at Jamaica’s Tourism Product Development Company Limited says since coming on stream, 900 entities had reopened, with some 95 percent having achieved COVID certification, while entity spot checks were done to ensure all measures were being adhered to within the Corridors, and was happy to report that so far no major breaches were identified.
John Byles, director of Chukka Caribbean Adventures and chairman of the Resilient Corridors programme says key to its success relies on all stakeholders working together to maintain that seamless end-to-end positive experience. He adds that while training in compliance to the protocols was one part, he attributes his team’s focus on the guest experience as a major part of the plan, with his company touching base with their clients throughout their stay and making sure they were having the vacation they deserve. Byles says it was the intention of the team to widen the corridors to include additional tourist experiences to guests in the near future.
Since Jamaica’s reopening in June, Minister Bartlett says some 211,000 visitors have arrived making up for US$ 231.9 Million in earnings between June and September 2020. He added that its corridors have also proven effective, as no cases have been recorded within these areas among visitors and workers in the sector.
Over 2000 buyers, tour operators, hoteliers, exhibitors, media personnel and sponsors participated in this year’s virtual B2B, marking it the most subscribed to event in JAPEX history.
It can be said that throughout the conference, the one theme that resonated across all discussions was ensuring all parties are kept safe in this COVID era. It’s been anticipated by the Tourism Minister that pre-COVID tourism won’t have a return until sometime after 2023.
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