Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development – Jamaica Marketing Strategy
chapter III
villa or apartment, as the average length of stay is close to 12 days. The interest that these visitors have in culture and nature would be more than satisfied by Portland, St Thomas, or the South Coast. The targets for the growth of visitor numbers from Canada are ambitious. They reflect the view that Jamaica should be able to recapture market share, particularly share lost to the Dominican Republic. Achieving the target will require greater resources, particularly for co-operative advertising, print advertising and public relations to capture higher expenditure from VFR visitors and promotional support for villas and apartments.
3.4.4 The UK Market Long haul travel from the UK has been growing rapidly and the UK has become the largest source market for long haul travel in Europe. Though holiday participation rates and holiday entitlements are lower than Germany, UK holiday makers are far more adventurous and take holidays to a greater variety of destinations. The UK is the second largest source of European visitors to the Caribbean after France and the growth of visitors numbers has averaged over 10% p.a. since the early 1990s. In recent years, the UK has been one of the few success stories in European markets for Jamaica. This is the market that has received the highest share of JTB resources after the US. However, compared with the Caribbean as a whole and with Barbados, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, Jamaica has lost market share and is now the third largest destination in the Caribbean for UK visitors, having been the largest. This is despite the fact that 40,000 or so of the 125,000 UK visitors are in fact VFR visitors, reflecting the strong links between the two countries. The UK market is highly segmented. The mainstream market is value conscious, served by a travel trade dominated by large, vertically integrated tour operators that provide packaged holidays. On the other hand, 30% of the market is made up of independent travellers and they are inclined to use specialist travel agents to provide customised packages. Visitors are interested in culture, nature, adventure, built heritage and history and there are a large number of special interest groups that constitute a market for group travel. The JTB Corporate Plan’s sections on Europe are well thought out and the activities planned to redress the continuing loss of market share in the UK market represent very good value for money. They are based on using tactical and co-operative advertising and working with the trade to sell comprehensive packages such as Insiders Jamaica. Like Canada, in the mainstream market, the key factors for success are offering value for money accommodation and tours and promoting them through the major tour operators. The 3-4 star large hotel should form the basic accommodation offered. In setting prices, hoteliers should allow for the fact that the tour operators seek strong discounts from the rack rate to allow them to sell competitively. A rate of US$40 or so per night on an EP basis should be the target. Length of stay is much higher than the US and seasonality less sharply defined, compensating the hotelier for the lower net rate. Assisting with the cost of brochure production and co-operative advertising are essential. The JTB used to spend significant sums on consumer advertising and competed with Barbados for the largest spend of any Caribbean tourist board in the UK. Recent cuts have reduced the promotional expenditure but research shows that Jamaica continues to share with Barbados the highest level of top of the mind and spontaneous destination awareness of the Caribbean destinations, far higher than Cuba and the Dominican Republic. This shows that it is not consumer awareness, but the product and price on offer through the travel trade that is causing Jamaica to lose share to the Dominican Republic and Cuba. The interesting result of recent research conducted by JTB, was that the attributes for which Jamaica was best known were beaches and night-life. Despite the close links between the two countries, little was known of
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