HospitalityThe Gleaner Jamaica KEEPING YOU CONNECTED TO THE BUSINESS OF TOURISM WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2019 Negril Aerodrome rehab finally Coffee under way industry WOOING TOURISTS The hard- resolve issue of sub- regional air transport After the crowning, I danced Caribbean tourism is robust and resilient Coffee industry wooing tourists Claudia Gardner Hospitality Jamaica Writer “We are also he Jamaica Coffee Exporters saying to the Association is embarking on Ta robust marketing strat- Jamaica Tourist egy geared at the island’s tourism industry to ensure an uptick in the Board, ‘Whenever purchase of coffee by the millions you are making of cruise and stop-over visitors to the island. an ad, you are in According to president of the association, Senator Norman the marketplace Grant, the initiative includes a com- already, you bination of islandwide signage as well as product sampling at the are advertising island’s ports of entry, which has already commenced. sand, sea, and “In terms of the market, we want to market Jamaica Blue Mountain everything, so say Coffee to the 4.3 million tourists, also ‘Coffee; the so we are putting in J$10 million in billboards. This is in partnership land of the finest with JACRA (Jamaica Agricultural Commodities Regulatory coffee in the Authority). We are talking to the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB),” world, Jamaica Grant, who is also managing di- Blue Mountain rector and CEO of the St Andrew- PHOTO BY ASHLEY ANGUIN based Mavis Bank Coffee Factory. coffee.’” A Jablum Coffee representative “JAMPRO is helping us to build serving coffee at the recent a five-year marketing strategy coffee is in the drinking experience, Jamaica International Exhibition. for the Jamaica Blue Mountain so we are doing all of that,” Grant, Coffee under my cap as president who is also a former president of of the Jamaica Coffee Exporters the Jamaica Agricultural Society, of the most expensive. Only coffee Association, and it is the first time (JAS) said. beans that are grown between in 30 years that we are sitting But one of the boldest moves, so 3,000 and 5,500 feet in the Blue down to do a brand strategy for far, according to Grant, is the lob- Mountains range can take on the the Jamaica Blue Mountain and bying of the Jamaica Tourist Board designation. Jamaican Coffee,” he added. to immerse coffee consumption in Over the past few years, there Grant said the billboards are its global advertisements. has been a contraction in the de- expected to be mounted at various “We are also saying to the mand for Jamaican coffee in over- sites within all the island’s six re- Jamaica Tourist Board, ‘Whenever seas markets due to, among other sort areas as well as at the Sangster you are making an ad, you are things, trademark infringements. and Norman Manley International in the marketplace already, you Production was also affected by airports. are advertising sand, sea, and diseases. Coffee exports also “So when you come in everything, so say also ‘Coffee; dropped in the last 25 years from Montego Bay, you will hear, the land of the finest coffee in the 700,000 boxes to approximately ‘Welcome to Jamaica’, the home of world, Jamaica Blue Mountain 250,000 while prices also fell from the finest coffee in the world,’” he coffee,’” he said. $12,000 per box to $3,500. said. “Our strategy is to sell green Last September, coffee to Japan, the USA, and He said that the promotional Agriculture Minister Audley the rest of the world. Seventy per strategy to offer samples of Blue Shaw noted that although the cent of the coffee is exported as Mountain Coffee at the island’s coffee industry is privatised, the green. We need that market, but cruise-shipping piers has been Government of Jamaica still has we also want to expand the val- well-received. a responsibility to facilitate and ue-added. And we are saying that “The response has been very aggressively promote the industry good. We have it brewed. We are when the tourist comes to Jamaica, “to the hilt”. Also in January this also looking to offer it cold as well, they must leave with a pack of year, the minister noted that long- depending on the time of the day Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee,” term solutions were being sought to and really taking this wonderful the senator said. better position the island’s coffee. coffee experience because coffee Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee PHOTO BY CLAUDIA GARDNER is great. We are saying, if you taste has the distinction of being la- n hospitalityjamaica@ Janice Williams parches her coffee beans, which she sells, along it, you will buy it. The proof of the belled the world’s finest and is one gleanerjm.com with an array of hot teas in Roaring River. 2 HOSPITALITY JAMAICA | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2019 Airlink offices at the Negril Aerodrome. Waiting area at Negril Aerodrome. Negril Aerodrome rehab finally under way Claudia Gardner were locked down because it was expecting that there will be positive Hospitality Jamaica Writer said that people could use them to implications for other sectors, S THE long-proposed export ganja. including entertainment, agri-tour- upgrading and expansion of “So what we are doing is open- ism, health, and even ground Athe Negril Aerodrome pro- ing up general aviation to create transport. gresses, Transport Minister Robert more opportunities for the ordinary “For example, you have Montague is contending that cou- Jamaicans,” said the minister. Sumfest coming up. People will pled with new flight offerings, the He is convinced that this now have an option to fly down new thrust will drive tourism in in the afternoon, watch the show, facility will enable a boon for Negril because the guests who have and go back home in the morning tourism and a resurgence of inter- spent hundreds of thousands of and be at their desks … . Even take est in general aviation. dollars to come on vacation want health. A person has a critical con- The airstrip, which is located at to maximise the return on that in- dition and needs a particular type Rutland Point in Hanover, was built vestment. “They will spend another of medication. It can be flown as in the 1970s, and for many years, two hours at the resort. They don’t opposed to via road as every served the tourists resorts within have to rush to spend two hours minute counts. If a person is sick Negril and its environs. However, and sit down in Sangster (air- and they have to hit the air ambu- activities were scaled down after port) because what we are doing is lance, you can fly from Negril into several carriers terminated flights PHOTOS BY CLAUDIA GARDNER that we streamline the process,” the Montego Bay and take the air am- to the town, which led to the facil- Offices at the Negril Aerodrome. Minister added. bulance out,” he said. ity being declassified in 2014. Montague also said that con- In terms of agriculture, the min- “About 20 per cent of the public,” Montague said. island’s airstrips due to drug-traf- trary to popular belief, the Negril ister expects that this will open up runway is under water because The minister said that the ficking fears. to Montego Bay route is not Negril and provide more ways of the drains have not been cleaned rehabilitation works in Negril “They closed down all the other only a profitable exercise but is the getting produce to market quicker. in many years, and it is located in are part of a comprehensive airstrips, so people dispensed with “only profitable route in the coun- The farmer who may get into the swamp. So we are proceeding upgrading plan for airstrips across their airplanes. We have 52 airstrips try right now” as many people con- something exotic, for example, to open up the drains to drain off the island, which is expected and we are down to eight, so over tinue to travel between Montego strawberries, he notes, can now some of the water, and we are to reduce tourist commute time, people just gave up. General Bay and Negril via charter flights. get to market in a relatively short also constructing a fire station times and evoke local interest aviation has died in the country.” He said that with the new sched- time. It will open up opportunities and putting in a pilots’ lounge in intra-island travel, which took According to him, it was the uled domestic flights by airlines for taximen as more people will and a manager’s office, and we a nosedive after numerous carriers ganja industry that helped to such as InterCaribbean to come on be flying in and more Jamaicans are expanding the security check exited the industry following the destroy general aviation because stream beginning July 9 from all will be able to come on day trips to station and the waiting areas for the closure of the majority of the all the airstrips, all the airfields airstrips, including Negril, he is Negril, Montague surmised. HOSPITALITY JAMAICA | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2019 3 North-East Asia (both +9 per cent) were the subregions with the strongest growth. Exports from international France and Russia lead growth among top spenders Growth in receipts was fuelled by strong demand for international travel in the con- tourism hit US$1.7 trillion text of a robust global economy. Among the world’s top ten source mar- XPORTS GENERATED by in- world, behind chemical manufacturing and foreign exchange and a major tool for ex- kets, France and the Russian Federation ternational tourism reached USD the fuel industry but ahead of the food and port diversification for many destinations.