Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett arrived in Toronto on Monday  for discussions this week with industry stakeholders on strategies to boost visitor arrivals from Canada.

Accompanying the minister is a three-member delegation from the Jamaica Tourist Board -John Lynch, chairman,  Paul Pennicook, director of tourism and Marcia McLaughlin, deputy director of tourism, marketing.

Bartlett said his meetings will involve representatives of several of Jamaica’s longstanding partners, including airlines, tour operators and travel agents.

Additionally, he said, the opportunity will be used to re-launch Jamaica’s advertising and marketing campaign to strengthen promotion of the island to Canadians as a destination of choice for vacations and other visits.

Bartlett explained that this is being done to enhance Jamaica’s presence in Canada which has recorded a decline in the number of persons visiting the island in recent years.

In acknowledging that this development could be attributed to “economic shifts”, he said that innovative strategies are being explored to better enable Jamaica to regain a strong foothold in that market.

“We are going to lift the quality of the destination’s (Jamaica’s)) offerings so that the visitor feels fully comfortable to pay what is required (for these) while getting high value (for their money),” Bartlett said.