CHTA Marketplace| Spanish hoteliers commit to buying more local products
Published:Thursday | January 23, 2020 | 12:18 PM
NASSAU, Bahamas:
Spanish hoteliers have agreed to expand the purchasing and support for Jamaican products and services, in sync with the growth of the island’s tourism industry.
The hoteliers made the commitment during a meeting in Spain with Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett this morning.
Bartlett is in Madrid attending FITUR, the largest International Tourism Trade Fair for inbound and outbound Ibero-American markets.
In a media release and in a subsequent interview with The Gleaner, Bartlett said he met with representatives of at least three of the largest hotel companies in Jamaica - Grupo Pinero, owners of Bahia Principe, Iberostar and Grand Palladium – where they expressed a willingness to work with the Government in partnering with local businesses on the establishment of efficient and well-run farming operations to better supply the growing industry.
Bartlett explained that the commitment came on the heels of the findings of a recent study illustrating Jamaica’s tourism sector total value of demand for agricultural products amounting to J$39.6 billion and a whopping J$352 billion for manufactured products.
The study, commissioned by the Ministry’s Tourism Linkages Council, was designed to identify existing/potential demand in the tourism sector for goods and services across sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and entertainment.
The Spanish hoteliers cited the importance of quality, good pricing and consistency from Jamaican suppliers.
Having invested close to US$1.7 billion or J$238 billion in the Jamaican economy in recent years, a figure that represents 25 per cent of the island’s hotel rooms, with expectations of pumping a further US$750 million or J$105 billion in investments in an additional 3,000 rooms, the tourism minister said he felt the time was right to have this critical conversation.
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