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JTB revs up marketing for winter season
As a means of stimulating tourist arrivals for the upcoming winter season, the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) has revved up its marketing efforts.
In a release from the country's marketing arm, the organisation said it has developed a wide-ranging marketing and sales activity plan that includes a mix of seminars, sales blitzes, familiarisation trips for media and travel agents, radio remote broadcasts, email blasts and consumer promotions.
The thrust is consistent with the Ministry of Tourism's 'Drive for Five Campaign'.
According to Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, this concept is geared at accelerating the country's tourism growth to five million arrivals by the year 2015, resulting in annual earnings of US$5 billion.
To realise its six, year forecast, the organisation plans to host some 2,720 travel at seminars in 45 cities across the USA between September and March, says Tourism Director John Lynch.
In addition, US Air, which begins service to Jamaica on December 17, will partner with the JTB to support airlift out of the western USA, through seminars, sales calls, training of travel agents and multi-station live broadcast and on-air radio promotions.
promotional activities
Internet promotion of the newly released Sony Pictures movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs will include a family trip for four to Sunset Jamaica Resort and Spa via Air Jamaica. The promotion, which started on August 3, will run to September 21, and will include banners on all Sony Pictures websites. It is anticipated that this promotion of Jamaica will reach upwards of 45 million people.
During the period September to December, a travel agents' education programme will be carried out to cover such areas as: cuisine in Jamaica; Jamaica's natural beauty; the Meet the People Programme and holiday traditions in Jamaica. During that period also, the JTB plans to organise cooking demonstrations, promoting Jamaican foods in the US Northeast.
training seminars
With much of Jamaica's tourism growth coming out of Canada, the JTB says it is placing strong emphasis on working with travel agents, tour operators and charter operators. The board's marketing team will hold travel agent training seminars for some 1,300 travel agents in Quebec, Atlantic Canada, Ottawa, British Columbia, Alberta and Ottawa during the months of September through November. This will be complemented by destination familiarisation trips for travel agents, tour operators and media, consumer promotions and meeting planners familiarisation trips.
Turning to Latin America, the JTB will conduct seminars in Bogota, Colombia, and Santiago, Chile, during the month of November. Trade shows are slated for Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.
In the United Kingdom and Europe, the JTB has a busy schedule, again concentrating on tour operators and travel agents. These two regions will join with the US and Canada for a massive radio station remote programme airing from Jamaica, involving 50 stations between November 1 and 15. A highlight coming out of the UK/Europe market will be the renewal of British Airways service to Montego Bay, starting October 29, said the release.
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