Tourism Ministry launches Destination Assurance Council
KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) – Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, on Tuesday, launched the Destination Assurance Council, which will work to ensure that the quality, standards and integrity of the tourism product are maintained.
He said the body, comprised of persons with appropriate skills to ensure the sustainable management of the resort areas, will play a key role in sustaining brand Jamaica and delivering a quality experience to visitors.“We have to build destination assurance and ensure that all the elements to make the visitor happy are in place before we make the sale,” the minister said at the launch held at the Eden Gardens Wellness Resort & Spa in St Andrew.Among its many functions, the council will identify the needs of the tourism industry and monitor the progress of the developmental efforts made by key stakeholders in the resort areas.This is by maintaining close contact with destination managers, who will play a lead role in coordinating the efforts of various government and other agencies.The council, through the destination managers, will also ensure that operators are licensed and that the standards of the industry are maintained.Bartlett noted that the council is comprised of public and private partners with specific skill sets to enable decisive decision making and sharing of information.“(It) consists of the people, who are responsible for managing the destination and managing the townships and the resorts. It involves all the elements in government that provide assurances for health, fire, security, insurance and those who deal with infrastructure such as the road, electricity, water, telephone, which are all factors to go into enabling this destination assurance,” he outlined.“So, local government has a key role to play in destination assurance; mayors and councilors all have to buy into the destination assurance and to be a partner in ensuring that this assurance is secured,” he pointed out.He said it is critical to pull all of these interests together and “and ask them to be bounded by one set of rules about how we are going to secure Jamaica for ourselves and the visitors”.He noted that the multi-stakeholder approach will ensure that product quality is enhanced across the board, and destination Jamaica will remain top of mind for the visitors.In addition to the destination assurance managers, chairpersons have been appointed to represent the various resort areas on the council.