Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sports, Hon. Olivia Grange, says the upcoming Jersey Mike’s Jamaica Classic Basketball Tournament in Montego Bay is “another feather in the cap” for the growing and increasingly lucrative sport tourism market. The Minister, in a statement to JIS News, said that increasingly, people are travelling to countries across the globe to participate in and...

Karisma Hotels and Resorts is set to break ground early next year for its US$1-billion Sugarcane Bay multi-resort development in Llandovery, St. Ann. The project will add 4,800 new rooms over 10 years. “We are set to break ground in the first quarter of 2020 to improve on our room count here in Jamaica,” Vice President of Karisma, Ruben Becerra,...

Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, says the strategic marketing of the sector beyond the traditional sand, sun and sea concept has placed Jamaica in the enviable position of being a prime destination for foreign direct investment (FDI). Addressing a group of high-level investors and other stakeholders at a cocktail reception for the Caribbean Hotel Investment Conference and Operations Summit...

The Amaterra Jamaica Group has entered a hotel management operator agreement with global chain, Marriott International. The partnership will see Marriott bringing its first all-inclusive property to the island. An agreement formalising the arrangement was signed during a press launch at the Hard Rock Café in St. James on Wednesday (November 13). The project, to be sited in Trelawny, will...

Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, says the targets under the 5x5x5 plan are way ahead of schedule, placing the sector on an unprecedented growth path. The five-year growth targets, set in 2016, are aimed at attracting five million tourists, generating US$5 billion in earnings, and increasing total direct employment to 125,000, while adding 15,000 rooms. “In only three years,...

Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, has hailed the owners of the Spanish hotel chain, RIU Resorts, for the growing expansion and continued investment in Jamaica. RIU has pumped over J$11 billion (US$85 million) into the renovation of its Ocho Rios property in St. Ann, including the building of a state-of-the-art water park, making the hotel chain one of the largest...

Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, says the Government is committed to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as they are major contributors to the success of the sector. “The small and medium enterprises are the real drivers [of the industry]. Eighty per cent of the experiences of tourism around the world is driven by SMEs,” he noted....

Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, says there is no cause for concern by Jamaicans over the increasing levels of foreign direct investments (FDI) in the country’s tourism industry. “As a tourist resort [destination], we are fortunate to be appealing to the world’s top hotel brands wanting to [invest in and] be part of destination Jamaica,” he said, in a message...

Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, is encouraging employers in the hospitality industry to participate in the proposed workers’ pension scheme, which is slated to come into effect next year.  “Cooperate with us, and work with the workers. We are incentivizing employers to ensure that they contribute their three percent now, and later on, five percent,” Mr. Bartlett said, while reiterating...