Director of tourism Donovan White says the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) hopes to partner with the renowned MoBay City Run in making the event Jamaica’s next marathon.

White, whose appointment took effect on February 15, argued that with over 20 races taking place each year, it is clear that Jamaica has the capability, infrastructure and professionals who can successfully execute such a road race.

“You think of the Reggae Marathon which is an International Association of Athletic Federation (IAAF) -certified course, and it is a model that can be replicated. That is what I want to see in Jamaica. I believe that we can continue to track international runners to come to Jamaica to run more marathons,” stated White.

“You think about big cities across the world — New York, Boston, Paris, Rome, London, Berlin — the marathons that are held in these cities every year are mega events. They rival the size of big rock concerts, and I would love one day to see us partner with Janet (Silvera) and her team to market MoBay City Run as the next Jamaica marathon.”

The MoBay City Run committee is led by Silvera, a western-based media practitioner, who has welcomed the proposal from the director.

She further disclosed that discussions to house a marathon for MoBay have already started — to include overseas companies. While not giving details, Silvera also disclosed that a domain name has already been bought for it.

White is also of the view that MoBay City Run is a perfect fit for the health and wellness industry. The Global Wellness Institute had stated in a 2015 publication that the health and wellness industry is a US$3.7 billion market.

Of this amount, US$563 million was spent on health and wellness tourism and is expected to grow by 43 per cent to about US$800 million between 2015 and 2020.

The institute in a January 2018 publication had also stated that the wellness economy, which is resilient to economic disruptions and geopolitical events, is projected to see an upward growth.