Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has declared that his ministry's intensive marketing campaign will be Jamaica's safety net if the British government ignores the protest of Caribbean leaders against the imposition of an air passenger duty (APD) expected to significantly dampen tourism in the region.

Bartlett was addressing the duty, and a long list of other tourism industry-related issues, at the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing held at Jamaica House.

The proposed APD, which is scheduled to take effect on November 1, will see British passengers paying an extra tariff, which is calculated based on the distance from London to the passenger's destination.

The effect is that a family flying from London would have to pay more duty to fly to Jamaica than it would to fly to Los Angeles or Hawaii.

According to Bartlett, the proposed tax would see a family of four flying from London being required to pay an additional
£600 to visit Jamaica in 2010.

Recognising the devastating effect of such tariff, Caribbean leaders have been lobbying Britain for a reconsideration of the APD.

"We have a market diversification programme that is going to move us beyond our traditional markets of United Kingdom and North America, into South America, further into Continental Europe and into Asia," said Bartlett.

On Monday, Bartlett, in his contribution to the 2009-2010 Sectoral Debate, spoke at great length about the new marketing campaign.

The ministry intends to utilise all social networking technology, old forms of media like cable and DirecTV and popularise a number of lesser-known Jamaican attractions like ecotourism and edutourism.

The tourism minister admitted that the proposed marketing plan would not realise any significant travel figures for Jamaica in the short term and would not be able to replace the expected winter shortfall once the tax is imposed in November.

Bartlett argued, however, that since the APD is being imposed on two occasions - first in November and then in 2010 - the aim of the new campaign is to provide enough visitors from new markets to lessen the impact.

"We may miss the boat in terms of any rollback in '09, but the campaign is going in earnest to deal with it for 2010," Bartlett argued.

andrew.wildes@gleanerjm.com

BARTLETT