Jamaica has been looking to the African tourism market in recent years, and now the island is stepping up its collaboration with South Africa.
Jamaica Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett met this week with South Africa Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille to discuss a new cooperation framework to make tourism for both countries a “key driver of development.”
“Jamaica welcomes the potential for collaboration, particularly in the field of tourism,” Bartlett said. “This is an industry that can be transformative, socially and economically, so we want to leverage tourism for the full benefit of our respective countries. Both Jamaica and South Africa are leaders in sustainable tourism, so together we have a lot of ideas and best practices to share.”
Most importantly, the two countries discussed air connectivity.
“South African Airlines, Africa’s leading airline, is currently focused on continental Africa. However, post-COVID, the airline intends to re-enter the US and UK markets. With our airline partner, Delta, flying directly into Cape Town both airlines can codeshare to facilitate the movement of traffic from South Africa through Atlanta to Kingston and Montego Bay,” Bartlett said.
The Minister also discussed developing a satellite office of Jamaica’s Global Tourism Resilience center at the University of Johannesburg.
It’s not just Jamaica, though, that’s eyeing the African market.
More and more Caribbean countries are looking at the potential of the African market, including Antigua, which saw the launch of an African charter flight to the island last year.