Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, is calling on all Jamaicans to do their part to protect Brand Jamaica.
“We have engaged professional services in looking at an evaluation of Brand Jamaica. We are quite well advanced in developing a nation brand strategy, and that nation brand strategy will do several things. It will give every Jamaican a better understanding of what is the Brand,” the Prime Minister said.
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“The Brand is the national property that benefits everyone and if you do something to destroy the brand, you are destroying yourself. We need every Jamaican to take responsibility for the brand because we have people who are destroying our brand by their actions here and abroad,” he noted.
The Prime Minister was addressing Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett’s double book launch on January 10 at Devon House in Kingston.
The books are titled ‘The Journey, the Service, the Man Edmund Bartlett’s Time Capsule – 1980-2022’, and ‘Thought Leadership on Tourism Resilience and Sustainability in the 21st Century’.
Mr. Holness said that linking Brand Jamaica with the country’s transition to a Republic strategically positions the country to assert its ability to chart the next phase of its development and reinforces its reputation as a top tourism destination.
“As we seek to become a Republic, it is the perfect opportunity to have our brand centered on our agency. Not just our freedom, not just our independence, but our agency, our ability to take charge of our own future and be responsible for it, so that it becomes part of our identity,” he explained.
In this digital age, Mr. Holness said today’s traveler places greater value on having an authentic experience, and that Jamaica must strategically seek to recraft and reposition itself if it is to get future growth in tourism.
Painting a picture of a tourism product that pulls together all the facets of Jamaican culture, history and industry, he said this will create an enduring tourism product that provides an introspective understanding of the country’s significance in the international community.
“Our history of struggle, our history of overcoming, our history of being resilient –we call all of that and put it into one Jamaican word called ‘tallawah’. We put that as part of our brand. And then we take our natural assets, our beautiful beaches, our lovely mountains, and we put that as part of our brand. And then we take the creativity of our people, our music, our art, our fashion – we put that as part of our brand. And then we take our hopes and our aspirations for a fair society, a peaceful society, a growing productive pro-social society,” he said.
The Prime Minister emphasized it is vital that the country present a cohesive product that showcases its tangible and intangible assets together to add greater depth to the visitor experience.
“And then we [can] say to the people, come to Jamaica for the full experience, not just the sun, sea and sand, because that in itself is a limitation. Come to Jamaica to experience a people who have experienced hardship, who have suffered, who have conquered, that have a deep history, that have more to offer humanity than just sun, sea and sand. That must be the essence of our tourism. That is how we expand and create this new type of tourism that we need that will be truly beneficial,” Mr. Holness said.
