Positive Tourism News Blog

Theo’s Theory on Marketing and Management Strategies is a Business-2-Business (B2B) reference manual designed for neophytes and seasoned entrepreneurs, business executives, sales departments, marketing, and social media departments, website developers, managers, and front-line employees.

The author states that Customer Satisfaction should be the core principle and focus of any business.  It is one of the pillars for success and sustainability.  

Mr. Chambers remind his readers how Social Media’s disruptive innovation has turned traditional marketing, advertising, branding, communication and entrepreneurship upside down.  It has levelled the playing field.

Mr. Chambers also explained how educational institutions are preparing students with the proper marketing, management and analytics tools for future jobs that do not exist today. In order words, they are equipping them with formulas and tools that are applicable across B2B and Business to Consumer (B2C) platforms.

With the development of civilization, people started sharing their contentment, sorrows, inventions, and accomplishments. Human instinct for curiosity and search led to the birth of tourism which removed differences between cultures, ethnic groups, religious groups, values and lifestyles, and languages.
Mahatma Gandhi described travel as ‘The Language of Peace.’ Gandhiji realized the importance of attaining freedom through non –violence and traveled all over India to develop a sense of personal touch among the populace and succeeded in achieving freedom through peace.

The scene of promoting cultural understanding, mutual respect and peace via travel and tourism, gives an incredible opportunity to strengthen cross-border relations.

Tourism as a peace tool intends to reduce root causes that create situations where violence has been perceived as inevitable. Most of the countries are in the process of promoting peace and establishing brotherhood with neighboring countries with the view of exchanging ideas and values.

Tourism truly acts as a vehicle for mutual understanding through cultural exchange and promotes peace dialogue at national and international levels. Effort by stakeholders is required to reduce the negative impacts of tourism and use tourism as a tool, media, passport, channel for peace to avoid another terror attack in the country in future and promote volun-tourism, wedding tourism, black tourism, and mourning tourism.

March 5, 2019 (Negril, Jamaica).  Living Life as a Sacred Practice: Discover Yourself as a Source of Creation authored by Sharon Parris-Chambers is now available online at Balboapress.com, Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.  It is the long-awaited second publication since her 2011 book, excerpts of which has been shared with audiences on Social Media over the past year.

There is a buzz surrounding the book reviewed by Queen Mother Barbara Makeda Blake Hannah, author, film maker and former senator who shares her convincing perspectives with discerning readers on the merits of Living Life As a Sacred Practice. She states 
“Thoughtful people who seek answers to the mysteries of living life fully, often turn to books of sacred wisdom and advice. Whether it be the holy books such as the Bible, Koran or books by modern gurus like Iyanla Van Zant, the desire for spiritual guidance occupies a major part of many.  For those who thought such wisdom only came from ancient sages or well-promoted American, European or Asian gurus, it is a welcome surprise to find that our friend, cultural Sister and PR practitioner Sharon Parris-Chambers has given us such an excellent tome of spiritual healing.”

From beginning to end the author seeks to establish an inner vision into spiritual development of the self as a Divine being. The book is beautifully laid out in clear typesetting, with each chapter prepared as a daily teaching complete on its own. The reader has only to turn to a chapter to find an introspective meditation, sacred practice and affirmation to be used as a daily spiritual cleansing and healing ritual. Sample topics such as: “Pacify your restless mind”, “Let the Real you Stand Up,” “I live my Dream,” “Stop Suffering,” and “Insource before you Outsource” can be found and savoured in the way one enjoys a feast. The key to the exercises is journaling, which requires mindfulness meditation. When this is done, it is more likely that something profound will be left with the seeker more than just merely reading passages within the book.

Dr Glenville Ashby, Religion & Culture editor, The Jamaica Gleaner, penned the forward wherein he takes note of the author’s maiden voyage to Africa. “The author returned to her roots in Gambia 2012 which unveiled her calling and sealed her mission as a veritable messenger of Spirit. It is in Gambia that she was grounded and initiated into the innermost mystery. It is there that she drank from the well of the First People and was handed the fabled Philosopher's Stone.”

The establishment of a marketing fund to promote the Caribbean as a premier tourism destination, is being explored by tourism ministers in the region.

St. Lucian Minister of Tourism and Chairman of the Caribbean Council of Ministers, Dominic Fedee, says he will be leading the charge, in collaboration with his Caribbean counterparts.

“So I think a major priority for the Council of Ministers now, in the short run is to make sure we put in a framework that will ensure a sustainable marketing fund for the Caribbean,” Fedee told Access Jamaica in an interview at the Caribbean Travel Marketplace Trade show at the Montego Bay Convention Centre on Thursday (January 31).

“For some reason this has eluded us, for many, many years, as jurisdictions and destinations in the Caribbean.  What is important now is to make sure that we bring everyone together, that we establish ourselves as a strong Caribbean brand.  I think it is one of the strongest travel brands in the world, notwithstanding our ability to come together and in a strategic and deliberate way, ensure that we promote the Caribbean brand,” the Minister added.

Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett (L) paused for a photo with Carissa Leitner, Account Manager of Simple View, the company that developed the new JTB website, and Trudy Chin, Acting General Manager for Caribbean Airlines. The occasion was the official launch of the JTB’s new website at the ATL Automotive in Kingston yesterday.

Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, on November 14 officially launched the Jamaica Tourist Board’s (JTB) new and fully integrated website which will transform its marketing strategies.

The website forms part of the JTB’s overall strategy to compete in the ever- changing global marketplace as well as plans by the management to revolutionize its methods of marketing and promoting Jamaica as a destination.

Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett (right) pauses for a photograph with Director of Tourism, Donovan White shortly after receiving the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) Champions in Challenge Award. The occasion is the International Institute for Peace Through Tourism (IIPT) Champions in Challenge Awards during the International Travel Crisis Management Summit (ITCMS) conference in London on Thursday November 08, 2018.

Source: The Ministry of Tourism

Caribbean Airlines reported a summary of its unaudited financial results, for the nine months ended September 30, 2018, which show the airline has moved into an operating profit and is net income positive for the year-to-date.

The unaudited accounts for the nine months to September 30, 2018 show Earnings Before Interest and Taxes (EBIT) of positive TT$96m – this is comprised of TT$118m on international and other operations and negative TT$22m on the domestic air bridge.

The airline’s total net income of TT$48m is comprised of TT$83m on international and other operations and a loss of TT$35m on the air bridge. Year-to-date total revenues showed a 15% year-on-year improvement of TT$291M.  Fuel of TT$450.4M was a major expenditure for the same period, compared to TT$345.5M in 2017 resulting in a year-on-year increase of TT$104.9M.

Caribbean Airlines’ improved performance has been achieved despite the aforementioned losses on the air bridge which continue to occur.  Since 2005, the adult fare on the air bridge has been fixed at $150 one way, irrespective of rising fuel costs, for which the airline receives no subsidy. The actual breakeven fare on the air bridge is $300 one-way. Of that sum, the passenger currently pays $150, the Government subsidy to the adult passenger only is $50 (children receive no subsidy from the Government) and Caribbean Airlines absorbs the loss for the remaining $100 or $150 depending on if the passenger is a child but occupying a seat.

The World Travel & Tourism Council 2019 Global Summit with the theme of ‘Changemakers’ will take place in Seville, Spain, on 3-4 April and will be hosted by Ayuntamiento of Seville, Turismo Andaluz and Turespaña. This marks the first time that WTTC is extending the invitation to attend the Global Summit to a wider group of senior industry professionals, with the aim of gathering and celebrating the people and ideas who are defining the future of the sector.

The Travel & Tourism leaders will celebrate the 500th anniversary of the departure of the first circumnavigation of the world, which set out from Seville, while shaping the future of our sector.This will be the first Global Summit to which industry professionals and people interested to hear from the leaders will be able to attend by paying a recovery fee. Until now, the Summit has been by invitation only, encompassing WTTC members and travel leaders. 2019 thus marks the first year that a limited number of guests from across the sector will be able to join.

Gloria Guevara, WTTC President & CEO, commented, “The WTTC Global Summit is the principal event where the global public and private leaders of our sector meet. We are happy to be back in Europe and especially in beautiful city of Seville, where we will celebrate the 500 years since the first circumnavigation, while we define and shape the future of our sector and recognize the ideas which will make it happen. Anyone wanting to know what the future of our sector looks like should come to the WTTC Global Summit.”

“At our last summit in Buenos Aires we had more than 1,300 delegates with more than 100 CEOs, the President of Argentina, the Prime Minister of Rwanda, more than 30 ministers or heads of tourism, three former presidents, three United Nations’ Secretaries General (UNWTO, UNFCCC and ICAO) as well as leaders from PATA, IATA, WEF, CLIA, and even one Academy Award winning film director. 2019 provides a new opportunity for industry peers to attend and gain inspiration from our ‘Changemakers’, outlining a future vision of Travel & Tourism with the pioneering individuals and disruptive ideas that will make it happen', the president said.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has hailed the People’s Republic of Russia as a new frontier from which visitors to the Caribbean can be attracted.

Speaking at the welcome reception for the Russian Pegas Fly Airline which made its inaugural trip to Jamaica recently, Mr Bartlett said Jamaica has a great advantage as Russia happens to be the fourth largest market source for visitors to the Dominican Republic, with which Jamaica has established a multi-destination Memorandum of Understanding.  

Pegas Fly will take approximately 5,400 new tourists to Jamaica’s shores up to May 2019 with flights terminating in Jamaica every 10 days. According to Minister Bartlett, this, along with the multi-destination arrangement, will afford Jamaica access to the growing market of Russian millennial travelers whom he says, have a very high purchasing power.

Minister Bartlett was also speaking in light of the recent abolition of visitor visas for certain categories of Russians seeking to travel to the island.  The inaugural Pegas Fly trip had brought the last group of Russians who required visas to enter the Jamaica.   Under the new visa regime, the Government of Jamaica has waived visa requirements for Russian visitors travelling to Jamaica for periods of up to 90 days per year.  

The Coastal Communities Fund has awarded £71,000 to The Lancashire Wildlife Trust to invest in a fresh project to encourage regeneration and nature tourism on the Fylde Coast, from Fleetwood to Lytham.

Project manager and senior marine conservation officer, Emily Baxter said: “You will find a great diversity of wildlife across the coast and you want to inspire visitors to enjoy and protect it.

“You want to use local businesses across the Fylde Coast, and we have been keen to activate with holiday parks particularly. We shall also support community groups to take a dynamic role in championing their coast and offer volunteering opportunities and placements with training such as for example helping with surveys, wildlife watching, and events.”

Trail leaflets will be produced for adults to utilize for self-guided exploration or organised guided walks, and for school and families groups. It really is hoped a mobile interactive display may also be found in community centres to inspire people concerning the Fylde Coast.

 Highly anticipated cruise line, Virgin Voyages, by Sir. Richard Branson, will make Havana, Cuba its first port of call. The cruise line will launch in 2020 and will depart from Port Miami with its first ship, The Scarlet Lady.  

“We’re giving sailors the opportunity to discover one of the world’s most desired destinations, Virgin Voyages style,” the company said. Select itineraries on Virgin Voyages in 2020 will include both daytime calls and overnight stays in Havana Harbor, the company said.

Virgin Voyages, which will be an exclusively adults- only cruise line (or as Virgin calls it “adult by design,”) is looking to disrupt the Caribbean cruise industry with provocative design, unorthodox amenities like on-ship tattoo parlors and what seems to be a clear focus on millennial travelers (although not exclusively).

Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett departed the island yesterday to participate in the World Travel Market (WTM), in London.

“The world travel market is one of the biggest programmes that the industry has on its calendar. I am very proud to share that I will be joined by a very sizeable delegation from Jamaica next week to participate in the event, which enables contracts to be entered into between hoteliers and suppliers and airlines and destinations and so on,” said the Minister.

The WTM is a major promotional platform for the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB).  It will also feature other Jamaican companies, creating the ideal opportunity to meet industry professionals and conduct business deals. Through its industry networks, the WTM also creates personal and business opportunities while also providing customers with quality contacts, content and communities. 

“While at the WTM, we will also engage in tourism diplomacy, which enables the real connectivity between countries that are involved in tourism and partners that are involved in this industry.

The resort town of Oracabessa in St. Mary, will be the venue for the first ever Radical Women's Leadership Retreat which is set for February 9 to 16 next year.

The weeklong event which will be staged at the Golden Clouds Villas, is the brainchild of wellness coach and behaviour change communicator, Madeline Kennedy of Kennedy Coaching.

"This training will allow women to develop and begin a plan of action to achieve success and wellness as they define it, having fun while breaking the cycle of over-doing and dancing with burnout," Kennedy told Positive Tourism.

Kennedy will be partnering with Jamaican transformational author and energy practitioner, Sharon Parris-Chambers to facilitate a workshop on holistic partnering strategies and systems change called the "Woman's Community Think Tank." They will 'lean in' to the emerging future with Jamaican community leaders and retreat participants co-creating this incubator for ideas and synergy based on the evidence-based ‘Theory U’ approach of MIT's Sloan School of Management. Parris-Chambers' most recent book "Living Life as a Sacred Practice" just went for sale on Balboapress.com at https://tinyurl.com/ybaloqs3

Mandeville, Jamaica, W.I. (December 4, 2017) Louis D’Amore, Founder/President of the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT), has designated 2018 the IIPT International Year Of Community Tourism And Peace in collaboration with Countrystyle/Villages As Businesses.

In 1994, the IIPT branded Jamaica The Home of Community Tourism in recognition of the two pioneers of the community tourism brand and programmes in 1978 in Mandeville Jamaica, Diana McIntyre-Pike, Founder/President, Countrystyle Community Tourism Network and her late business partner Desmond Henry from Treasure Beach, Jamaica. 

In 2013, on the recommendation of the IIPT Caribbean Chapter, the IIPT welcomed the Caribbean Region to join as partners. The Caribbean was then also branded "Home of Community Tourism." The IIPT International Year Of Community Tourism And Peace will mark the 40th Anniversary of Community Tourism, which Countrystyle/Villages as Businesses began in Jamaica and is now an international movement. Celebrations in Jamaica will begin on January 1with a Gospel Concert in Apple Valley Park, Maggotty, St Elizabeth, and will continue at the 15th Annual Resource UNIA-ACL Marcus Garvey Fair in Cross Keys, Manchester on February 25. The 2018 IIPT International Year Of Community Tourism And Peace will also commemorate IIPT’s 30th Anniversary Year. 

In August 2018, the IIPT will hold its Global Summit in Montreal, Canada on the theme “Sustainable Tourism for Development and Peace.” The Summit will bring together delegates from some 50 countries and feature success stories’ and models of best practice from different regions of the world. The IIPT International Year of Community Tourism and Peace will build towards the first Villages as Businesses Conference and Trade Show, to be held in Jamaica in December 2018. This first of its kind event will be hosted by IIPT Caribbean in partnership with the IIPT International Community Tourism Network, UWI Open Campus and other local and international organizations. 

A Gastronomy Ambassador Programme has been announced as a significant outcome of the partnership between the Ministry of Tourism’s Linkages Network and the Culinary Federation of Jamaica for this year’s Taste of Jamaica  Culinary Competition and Expo.

Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett made the disclosure Saturday (December 2) at the opening ceremony for the tenth anniversary staging of the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF)-sponsored event at the Montego Bay Convention Centre.

Minister Bartlett also announced to his audience of hundreds of patrons at the TEF Taste of Jamaica that through the Ministry’s Gastronomy Network, the top awardees in three competitive areas would become Jamaica’s first gastronomy ambassadors.

“I am pleased to announce the Gastronomy Network Programme which will see winners of the Chef of the Year (Michael Barnett of Hedonism II), the Pastry Chef of the Year (Oberio Walker of Jewel Paradise Cove) and the Bartender of the Year (Dwayne Barnett of Jamaica Pegasus) in Taste of Jamaica being sent to New York to receive training. The three will then become the first official Ambassadors of Gastronomy of Jamaica,” he said.

Source: Caribnewsroom.com by Hope Heaven & Sharon Parris-Chambers

Photo Caption: Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett (left) shares a special moment with Jimmy Cliff, IRIE FM Lifetime Achievement awardee, and former Prime Minister, the Most Hon. P.J. Patterson (right). They are pictured here together on Sunday, February 12, 2017 at the inaugural IRIE FM Lifetime Achievement awards ceremony, held at the Somerton All-Age School, St. James, Jamaica.

Photo Credit: Ministry of Tourism

Nestled in a lush green valley where a river once ran, is a town called Somerton. It is the childhood hometown of musician, actor, rock and roll hall of famer, the honorable Doctor Jimmy Cliff, OM.

SOURCE: Theo Chambers, Caribnewsroom.com 
This is one of the contributed articles for Black History Month by Caribnewsroom.com

Born in Colon, Panama to both Jamaican Maternal and Paternal Grandparents, I remember at the tender age of 12, being introduced to the teachings and ideology of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey by my mentor and good friend, Professor Alfred Rowe.

While stationed at RAF Alconbury (US Air Force) in England, my second child was born, whom I named, Malcolm X Chambers, which is on his birth certificate.   I admired the philosophy and ideology of Malcolm X after Mecca, which was more tolerant and universal.

Having exposed myself to the Rastafarian movement, and the struggle they have gone through, especially in their quest for reparations from our former slave masters and Colonial Imperialists, I am impressed to witness that Caribbean leaders have finally joined together in admitting that the damage created by slavery, and the depletion of local resources that were used to build what is now known as first world countries, were wrong then, and the long-term negative effects should be reversed through financial and social compensation.

Source: eturbonews.com

He wants to become the new top executive, the new Secretary-General of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). Competing with numerous candidates he is optimistic to be the new leader of World Tourism after the UNWTO General Assembly meets in September 2017 in China.

Zimbabwe’s minister of tourism and hospitality, the Hon. Walter Mzembi has been working day and night for many months, trying to earn the trust, show the courage and knowledge to lead this top post. Even though for some time he was the only contender for Secretary General, he never missed a meeting or an opportunity to show up anywhere in the world to contribute his fresh global approach of thinking.

He is African, he thinks Africa should be leading the next UNWTO, but he certainly is a global citizen.

Source: SFLCN.com

KINGSTON, Jamaica – This year’s UWI Awards and Symposium is scheduled for February 22, 2017 5-8pm at the Open Campus Learning Centre, University West Indies, Mona and will showcase tourism, education and culture with all proceeds to benefit Christian mission and school project.

UWI Awards Patron Ambassador of China to Jamaica, Niu Quinbago, and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Kamina Johnson Smith will join in paying homage to Business Man of The Year, Top Caribbean Resort destination, and Caribbean Airlines superpower CAL, the warmth of the islands.

The red carpet event will be covered by local and international media as well as augment Jamaica’s event tourism calendar while providing millions of dollars in marketing revenue for sponsors for twelve months.

Source: http://www.commonwealthwriters.org

Photo Credit: Google.com 

To commemorate World Braille Day, the Commonwealth Youth Council launches “Unseen & Unspoken.” This is a segment of creative expression of the #iamABLE campaign through the art of poetry.

The theme of the competition is “My disability does not define me.” The theme can be interpreted many ways – writers could focus on achievements and talents they have in spite of a disability, or positive traits they have or have developed as a result of their disability. ]