JAMVAC Pushing for ‘Multi-Porting’

Executive Director of Jamaica Vacations Limited (JAMVAC), Joy Roberts, says there are plans to encourage ‘multi-porting’ in the local cruise sector, in order to boost the onshore experience of visitors.

Speaking at the recent Team Jamaica and Montego Bay City Tour Guides graduation ceremony in Montego Bay, Ms. Roberts said this would mean that a cruise ship would “come to Montego Bay today, tomorrow it goes to Ocho Rios, then the next day it goes to Port Antonio”.

She noted that this concept will be complemented by plans to theme each port area and promote a different experience to cruise-ship visitors at each stop.

“It is something that we are looking at, but before we are able to do that, we have to first theme the different port areas, which is something we are embarking on right now. By theming, I mean the experience or the things sold in each area would have to be different,” Ms. Roberts explained.

“So, you come to Montego Bay, it’s a different experience than when you go to Kingston or Falmouth. This is being spearheaded by the Ministry of Tourism and we would be pushing that,” she added.

Arrival figures indicate that the island welcomed just over 4.31 million visitors in 2018, a 5.3 per cent increase over the 4,300,241 tourists who came in 2017. The industry also generated gross earnings of some US$3.3 billion, a nine per cent increase over the 2017 figure of US$3 billion.

Jamaica Vacations, under the Ministry of Tourism, is mandated to create the conditions for accelerating the rate of growth of visitors to Jamaica.