More buyers at EXPO Jamaica this year
The Jamaica Promotions Company (JAMPRO) has announced that that is is bringing at least 60 per cent more overseas ‘buyers’ to the Expo Jamaica trade show this year.
The agency said that following a comprehensive buyer recruitment programme it has succeeded in having 148 overseas buyers and 141 local buyers participate in the biennial trade event. In 2010, JAMPRO ampro recruited 92 overseas buyers and 161 local buyers for the trade show.
JAMPRO Vice President for trade and business development, Delaine Morgan, said that agency’s successful efforts to attract more buyers to the event was due to its intense and aggressive buyer recruitment drive, which commenced earlier this year.
Expo Jamaica 2012 will see the participation of major international distributors who supply well-known retailers such as Wal-Mart, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Winn-Dixie Stores Inc and Walgreens. Locally, there has been strong support from buyers such as PriceSmart, Sandals Resort International, The Tryall Club, Bashco, Mega Mart and several locally-based international food chains.
Two hundred Jamaican firms will showcase the best of Brand Jamaica at the event, displaying over 2,000 quality products.
Jamaica tourist $$
staying at home
Most of Jamaica’s more than J$229 billion in annual earnings from its tourism industry remains in the country according to a local tourism study by Oxford Economics. This, according to the study is an indicator of proposes a revolutionary view that three-quarters of the J$229 billion in annual tourism earnings remain within Jamaica, which indicates the sector’s increased importance to local commerce.
The study, titled Tourism as a Driver of Jamaica’s Economic Development, essentially expands on Government’s direct accounting of the tourism sector as amounting to 7.3 per cent of gross output by including indirect and induced value – or its economic value.
Oxford Economics’ estimate is 19.5 per cent.
The study has dispelled a long-held position that leakages account for between 60 per cent to 80 per cent of tourism earnings.
“It debunks a widely held view that the industry funds leakages,” Adam Sacks, who conducted the study, told Wednesday Business in an interview.
Barbados pushing tourist patronage of craft industry
Barbados is seeking to ensure that cruise ship visitors to the island spend more money on acquiring local craft according to a report in the March 29 Barbados Advocate.
The report, which attributes the comment to the island’s Industry and Small Business Minister Denis Kelman says that moere cruise ship passengers will now he encouraged to do business with its Pelican Craft Centre. Other plans to help promote small business development including assisting with the provision of working capital to help those businesses maintain adequate stock levels are also on the cards.