The Millennial Marketer (October 2021)

It's PINKtober!

OCTOBER 2021/ ISSUE 06 / VOLUME 21

join the breast cancer fight!!!

WHY

SMALL BUSINESS WEBSITES

FAIL EARLY WARNING SIGNS OF BREAST CANCER

JAMAICA IN FINAL STAGES OF PREPARING ACCESSION DOCUMENTS TO MADRID PROTOCOL MORE PUBLIC WI-FI HOTSPOTS COMING!

From the Editor Hello again!

In 2020, Jamaica reported 1,200 cases of breast cancer. Half of those were fatal. We are reminded of this because October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Every year since its founding in 1985, Pinktober seeks to memorialize those who have lost their battles with breast cancer, celebrate those who have won and prevent countless others from ever having to enter the battlefield at all.

The best chance of surviving breast cancer is through early detection, so if you’re over 40 and have never had a mammogram, or if it’s been more than a year since your last mammogram, stop reading and make an appointment now. With all the weapons we now have available in the fight against breast cancer, a 50% mortality rate is simply unacceptable.

In other health news, our “third wave” of Covid-19 is receding and Jamaica still has plenty of vaccine doses available. Be sure to check out the latest vaccination schedule in this issue and, again, if you haven’t been vaccinated as yet, stop reading and make an appointment now.

In positive news for businesses, Jamaica is in the final stages of preparing accession documents to the Madrid Protocol, which will make protecting their goods and services on a global scale much easier and less expensive for Jamaican companies wishing to do business abroad. Minister Vaz has also announced that efforts to establish more public, free WiFi spots and connect more schools to the internet are well under way. Also, for the first time, Jamaica will participate in the World Travel Market being staged in London in November of this year.

Finally, as online sales continue to rise in the post-shutdown marketplace, curating and maximizing your website is more important than ever. Be sure to read this month’s feature article Why Small Business Websites Fail for invaluable solutions to increase website traffic and online sales.

As always, I hope you find this month’s issue of The Millennial Marketer a valuable resource for the continued success of your business!

Warm Regards, Paul Bauer EDITOR, THE MILLENNIAL MARKETER

JAMAICA TO PARTICIPATE IN WORLD TRAVEL MARKET The Tourism Ministry is gearing up to participate in the World Travel Market to be staged in London in November as part of preparation for the upcoming winter tourist season.

Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, said Jamaica will be making several “key presentations” at the international travel event, which is being held for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“These presentations Jamaica will be making will be in the largest and most important forum in [global] tourism,” Mr. Bartlett told journalists during a tablet and laptop handover ceremony at the Holiday Inn Resort and Spa in St. James on Friday (October 8).

“There will be a mix of face-to-face and some level of virtual, but Jamaica’s presence at the World Travel Market this year is being enhanced by the huge call on us for thought leadership activities,” he added.

The Minister noted that Jamaica’s participation at the event will be made that much stronger given the UK’s recent announcement to lift the travel advisory against all non-essential travel to the country.

“So, we are excited about getting back the full air arrangements and air connectivity out of the UK and, by extension, out of Europe. The importance of this, in general, is significant for our European programme, and what it also does is strengthen our marketing plan,” Mr. Bartlett outlined.

“So, we are anticipating that when we complete the London programme to have tidied up all of our plans for the winter tourist season,” he added.

The year’s World Travel Market will be running as a hybrid event, with the physical event taking place in ExCel London from November 1 to 3 and a virtual event taking place from November 8 to 9.

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JAMAICA IN FINAL STAGES OF PREPARING ACCESSION DOCUMENTS TO MADRID PROTOCOL Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Hon. Audley Shaw, says that the Ministry is in the final stages of preparing the documents of accession, which will allow local trademark owners to safeguard their marks internationally, using the Madrid Protocol.

Accession to the global treaty, administered by the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) enables trademark owners to protect their goods and services anywhere in the world by registering their trademarks in any of the jurisdictions that are party to the protocol.

The Jamaican Trademarks Act was amended this year to incorporate the provisions under the Madrid Protocol.

Minister Shaw, addressing a virtual webinar on Thursday (September 30), said that the protocol will enable Jamaican companies to “benefit from less expensive access to [the] protection of their marks, in countries that are parties to the Madrid system.”

With greater and cheaper access to trademark protection, local companies will become more competitive on the world market, particularly in countries where ordinarily, they would be unable to obtain trademark protection because of prohibitive costs. Importantly, Jamaica’s major trading partners have become members of the Madrid Union.

“This will enable the companies to preserve the reputation of their goods by preventing the registration of deceptive marks linked to goods of inferior quality, thus, hopefully, reversing the capture of Jamaican intellectual property by those overseas who recognize the tremendous international appeal of Jamaican goods and services,” the Minister noted.

Meanwhile, Minister Shaw said that the Government is committed to modernizing the legislative framework for intellectual property protection as part of efforts to improve the business and commercial environments.

“An appropriate and effective intellectual property legislative framework is especially important for the development of the creative industries and the facilitation of trade in goods and services, which are critical pillars of the economic growth agenda,” he noted.

The webinar on the Madrid Protocol was hosted by WIPO in collaboration with the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO).

MORE BPO COMPANIES EYEING JAMAICA JAMPRO, the Government’s trade promotion agency, is indicating that it is fielding queries from several overseas companies wanting to operate from Jamaica. The entity, through its manager for IT enabled services, Vivion Scully, however, said, it “…cannot reveal specific information like names about potential investors until they have given us approval to do so [or] until their projects have been finalised.”

Some Fortune 500 companies which currently have outsourced business accounts in Jamaica are Fitbit, Pizza Hut, Amazon, Expedia, and AT&T. It is not clear which clients the new entities will bring.

Scully, however, said, “Because of the high productivity and excellent Englishspeaking workforce several new BPOs [business process outsourcing] have been expressing interest in Jamaica as a nearshore location.” Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) has indicated that the BPO sector now employs over 43,000 people. This represents close to 20 per cent growth over 2020, but is a slowdown relative to 2019, due to the start of the pandemic in March 2020. Local BPO management companies which have expanded their footprint in Jamaica as a consequence of higher demand for services include Sutherland Global, Ibex Global, Itel BPO, and Team HGS. Ibex Jamaica Limited recently added more operational space in Portmore, The NASDAQ listed firm, has indicated that it has invested US$50 million in the island to date. Its new Portmore facility will create 1,300 jobs, bringing the company’s total employment on the island to more than 6,500 people, the company indicates.

Since opening its first site in Jamaica in 2016, IBEX has invested more than US$50 million capital in Jamaica and has paid more than US$40 million in annual salaries. Scully told the Jamaica Observer that productivity levels and technical support are behind the industry’s growth.

He stated, “The demand for BPO services from Jamaica is a result of demonstrated positive productivity and the high-level skill sets that are available on the island. It shows that the customer service, technical support, and professional services, like finance and accounting, being offered are exceptional.”

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DO BUSINESS JAMAICA VIRTUAL INVESTMENT CONFERENCE SET FOR NOVEMBER JAMPRO will host its Explore: Do Business Jamaica Virtual Investment Conference (DBJVIC) from November 17–18, 2021 to introduce local and international investors to business opportunities in Jamaica's growing industries.

The investment conference aims to foster business and stakeholder relationships and will shed light on Jamaica’s COVID-19 economic recovery efforts.

It will showcase emerging projects and new developments in agribusiness, outsourcing, manufacturing, energy, tourism, and the creative industries through more than 30 panels, interviews, and discussions with government and business leaders.

The conference will be staged concurrently via two platforms; one is a virtual interactive business event portal that will facilitate a real-time engagement experience and B2B meetings, the second is a live stream event via social media that will accommodate and drive increased awareness of Jamaica’s economic progress.

This format will help Jampro to engage attendees, including current and potential investors, JAMPRO clients, private and public sector stakeholders, and diplomatic missions. JAMPRO anticipates extensive global participation based on the planned international promotions which will ensure the leveraging of the virtual B2B meeting platform by potential investors.

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Are you having trouble converting customers via your website? Are you having an issue simply getting visits to your website? If your website isn’t getting any traffic, you’re not generating any sales. And what’s worse is that without traffic, you can’t test the key components of your sales process.

Here are a few suggestions on how you can increase your website traffic: 1. SOLVE PROBLEMS. The challenge is that most websites are written around how great the business is and not what problem you solve.

Solution: Make the buyer the hero.

2. DO NOT FOCUS ON FEATURES. Customers tend to be more interested in what your product or service can do for th em, rather than the features.

Solution: Focus on BENEFITS. Tell your customers the benefits that your product or service will do for them. A classic example of this is a drill. Customers don’t want a drill, they want a hole in the wall. So focus on the quality of the holes and how easy it was to create those holes — not the actual drill itself.

WHY

3. BUILD YOUR BRAND. People will more be likely to buy from you if the quality of what you sell is matched or surpassed by the quality of your brand identity.

FAIL

Solution: Build a reputation around your company, products, and services, that is bigger than any of those things. That reputation will pull you toward greatness.

4. HELP PEOPLE GET TO KNOW, LIKE, AND TRUST YOU. Trying to sell your services/products too early won’t get you great results. Your homepage covers only the ‘know’ part and that is not enough.

Solution: You first need them to like and trust you. You can do that by having an awesome ‘About Me’ page, by having them follow you on social or getting them to subscribe to your newsletter.”

SMALL BUSINESS WEBSITES

5. GIVE THEM A REASON TO COME REVISIT. Your website isn’t bringing in customers because you have given them no reason to come back.

Solution: Convert leads into customers by earning their trust and educating them on why they need your services or products. Focus on producing content on your site that educates and engages your prospective customers so they keep coming back to learn more.

6. OPTIMIZE FOR EASE OF USE AND CONVERSIONS. One of the biggest challenges websites face today when trying to bring in and retain customers is the user experience on the site. The user-experience problem could be something as simple as having a slow website that discourages visitors from spending any time on your site, and improving it can have big results.

Solution: Optimise your website. To help turn visitors into customers, optimize your website design by asking yourself these questions: Is there enough space to let the design breathe?

Is your navigation pared-down enough?

Are your calls to action strategic?

Do your call-to-action buttons contrast against the background?

Do you have (relevant) imagery to break up heavy content?

Are testimonials prominent?

If used correctly, a website can be a very powerful weapon to generate more traffic for your Small Business as well as build brand awareness.

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MINISTER VAZ OUTLINES PLAN TO CONNECT SCHOOLS TO INTERNET The Government has developed a three-tier connectivity plan for schools to meet the demand for internet service.

This was disclosed by Minister of Science, Energy and Technology, Hon. Daryl Vaz, during a statement to the House of Representatives on Tuesday, September 28.

Forty-eight places of safety are also included in the plan.

Minster Vaz said that of the 980 public schools, more than 399 have poor internet service and 220 are without access for varying reasons, chief among them is the lack of communication infrastructure in the communities where the institutions are located.

CONT'D... 1

He pointed out further, that three-quarters of the student population, estimated to be more than 600,000 students, are impacted by poor quality or no internet service.

“The harsh reality is that time has caught up with us because of our collective failure to make sustained and strategic investments in the country’s fibre optic cable infrastructure that would have allowed us to meet the demand of a digitally-enabled school system, with or without the coronavirus (COVID-19),” he said.

He explained said that under the connectivity plan, “we are no longer going to allow each connected school to negotiate individually with service providers. Instead, schools are grouped based on their enrollment and bandwidth requirements and service providers are required to create a private data network for each group.”

Minister Vaz explained that each group of schools will be connected to the Government’s backbone over which they will get access to the internet and data services.

“This type of network service gives the Government the ability to share a single source of internet to the various groups of schools and eliminates the need to manage over 900 individual internet service contracts, providing instead, for a single internet service contract for all schools,” he said.

He noted too that it will allow the Government the ability to monitor the performance of each school internet service in real time.

“Most importantly, the Government will have the ability to centrally filter content to make sure that students are not exposed to illicit and inappropriate material,” Minister Vaz said.

Public institutions with enrollment of between 100 to 400 students and requiring 10 to 40 megabits per second (Mbps) of bandwidth, will be placed in tier one of the threetier connectivity plan.

Minister Vaz informed that a tender is currently out for local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to provide wide area network service (fibre/microwave) for these schools. “We are almost at the closing period for bids,” he said.

Approximately, 661 schools are a part of this tender, with 66,735 students to potentially benefit. The projection is for implementation to be completed by the end of this school term.

Tier two covers those schools located in rural and deep rural communities with enrollment of up to 400 students requiring 10 to 40 Mbps. Approximately 480 public educational institutions are a part of this tender and more than 54,395 students are intended to benefit.

For tier three, schools with enrollment of between 500 and 2000 students and require bandwidth of 50 to 400Mbps, will be targeted. Mr. Vaz said 244 of these institutions, with a combined population of 277,391 students, have been identified island wide.

He said that these schools experience some of the greatest difficulties in accessing quality internet service and represent the largest segment of the student population, and they will now be connected directly to the Government’s backbone.

“These connections will enable upload and download speeds of 1 Gigabit providing the schools with additional capacity for many years to come,” he noted.

MORE PUBLIC WI-FI HOTSPOTS COMING! As the Government continues their efforts to increase public access to free internet service, seven (7) additional Wi-Fi hotspots are to be be established in major towns by the end of this financial year.

The locations are Falmouth, Trelawny; Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland; Morant Bay, St. Thomas; Lucea, Hanover; Spanish Town, St. Catherine; Port Maria, St. Mary; and Black River, St. Elizabeth.

Minister of Science, Energy and Technology, Hon. Daryl Vaz, in making the announcement in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, September 28, informed that contracts have been awarded for 3 sites and procurement initiated for the remaining 4 sites.

He said that the 7 new locations will bring to 20 the number of public Wi-Fi sites in major towns across the country by March 31, 2022. The public Wi-Fi-hotspot programme, which is being undertaken by the Universal Service Fund (USF), complements the Government’s drive to provide easy Internet access for residents under a community Wi-Fi initiative.

A total of 189 sites have been selected under the community initiative, based on recommendations from the Members of Parliament (MPs). It is being spearheaded by the USF in conjunction with eGov Jamaica Limited and the National Works Agency (NWA).

Minister Vaz told the House that the schedule is for the community initiative to be implemented in four phases, with full deployment by the end of the first quarter of 2022/2023, but “I’m seeking to change from four phases to three phases and to have everything completed for the 189 Wi-Fi hotspots by the end of this financial year, which means March 2022”.

He said that further discussions will be held on the proposal.

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chills, tenderness of the injection site, Fatigue, Muscle pain, headache, nausea & fever

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VACCINES ARE STILL AVAILABLE!!!

Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, says 568,615 doses of vaccine are available in the island to administer to Jamaicans.

These include 390,180 doses of the AstraZeneca brand for first and second doses, and 178,435 of the Johnson & Johnson single-dose brand.

“We are saying to Jamaicans, please, if you have not yet gotten your vaccines or you need to get your second dose, or you need the one-jab vaccine, we have in stock. Go to a site that is available, either through the private window or public [sector], to benefit from this,” Dr. Tufton said.

He was speaking at the virtual COVID Conversations press conference on September 1.

Meanwhile, he is assuring Jamaicans that expired vaccines will not be administered, noting that a protocol exists for discarding them.

Approximately 60,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine were scheduled to expire at midnight on September 30.

“If you turn up at a location, do not worry that you’re being given a vaccine that is expired, that will not happen. The vaccines that will be available as of tomorrow is a different batch of vaccines,” he said.

Dr Tufton explained that the expired vaccines are the remainder of the 300,000 United Kingdom (UK)-donated Oxford AstraZeneca brand vaccines, which arrived in the island in July.

“We received the vaccines the end of July with a two-month period for use. Normally, these vaccines would have a six-month shelf life, but we got it four months into its usable shelf life.

Our intention was to get take-up all 300,000 doses, and we have gotten up to 240,000,” he pointed out.

“Our policy is, that we do not administer vaccines that have expired, in keeping with the high standards we have established for the immunisation programme. There was always the possibility that we would have not used up as much as was given during the period that was given to dispose of the amount,” he said. Dr. Tufton said that the disposal of the expired batch will take place in consultation with the donors.

“There’s a protocol for discarding vaccines that have expired. We are not unaccustomed to that protocol given that we administer vaccines on an ongoing basis; its logged and there is a particular way to destroy, which will take place and perhaps in this case, in consultation with the donor,” he indicated.

Meanwhile, Dr. Tufton said Jamaica hopes to receive additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine early in October.

GOV’T TO INTRODUCE DIGITAL COVID-19 VACCINATION CARD Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, says the Government is working on developing a digital coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination card, which should be available to Jamaicans within the next two to three months.

“We are currently in the exploratory mode. We are working with a number of international partners, among them the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), which, of course, is the software platform we currently use to upload the information around persons who have been vaccinated,” he said, while addressing Thursday’s (September 30) virtual Covid Conversations press briefing.

Dr. Tufton said that the Ministry is seeking to have the card modelled off best practices and standards seen in Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States (US) “and that is, of course, to establish the compatibility and, by extension, the acceptability of the card.”

He said that the card will feature a QR code that will be “securely encrypted,” and persons will be able to print their QR Code or have it available digitally via short message service (SMS) or email.

“So, it is a code that can be read by a machine where the data can be uploaded or verified,” he pointed out.

Dr. Tufton said it is expected that persons who already have a physical vaccination card will be transitioned to the digital format. He said that the card will be critical in managing the vaccination process and provide Jamaicans with a universally accepted card, while reducing fraud.

“We have seen cases of persons allegedly having fake vaccine cards and we have heard anecdotes around the cost, and that is increasingly becoming a challenge,” he added.

In addition, he said that “the announcement in other jurisdictions that vaccination is going to be required for visitors does require, as part of the infrastructure, a card that is going to be universally accepted and validated and where the possibility of fraudulently producing a card is minimised if not totally eliminated.”

“The same approach is taken with a passport, for example, which has digital reading… to capture the data of travel history and so on,” he pointed out.

NEW VACCINATION POLICY COMING SOON Prime Minister Andrew Holness says new vaccination policies are to be implemented after the Government completes its public education campaign.

He noted that in the interim, all sections of the population must be exposed to information about the vaccine and given the choice and opportunity to get vaccinated.

“We will respect people’s rights and the process before we do anything, but we can’t continue like this for much longer; our children must go back to school. They have suffered the most, and so there will come a time when we will have to insist upon persons taking the vaccines,” said Prime Minister Holness.

The Prime Minister’s comments came on Thursday (October 7, 2021), during a tour of Vaccination Blitz sites in North Central Clarendon.

In addition, Prime Minister Holness acknowledged that in the past, vaccines saved societies from being destroyed and now, the country is at the point where the virus has impacted the way of life. He says it should be understood that if we don’t take the vaccine, the country will not return to normal.

The Prime Minister said: “Those who don’t take the vaccine remain the host population for the reproduction and mutation of the virus. The consequence of this is that the people who would have taken the vaccine will face the potential of being infected by a mutated version of the virus for which the original vaccine they took would not be as effective.”

In this regard, Prime Minister Holness said that it is unfair for people to want their right not to take the vaccine and move about freely and do as they wish to be respected, while those who are vaccinated endure hardships.

As such, he noted that societies with a similar constitutional basis as Jamaica, have recognised this unfairness and have implemented measures to differentiate between those who are vaccinated and those who are unvaccinated.

In the meantime, while many sectors have called on the Government to immediately implement differentiating measures, the Prime Minister says he respects the right and freedom of Jamaicans and believes that there must be a period of reasoning with Jamaicans to ensure they recognise that their freedom is not without obligation and responsibility.

08:08 EARLY WARNING SIGNS OF BREAST CANCER Pain in any area of the breast Irritation or dimpling of breast skin Thickening or swelling of part of the breast New lump in the breast or underarm (armpit) Pulling in of the nipple or pain in the nipple area Any change in the size or the shape of the breast Redness or flaky skin in the nipple area or the breast Nipple discharge other than breast milk, including blood

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CAC REMINDS CONSUMERS OF THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES The Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) is reminding consumers of their responsibilities under the Consumer Protection Act (CPA).

The Act speaks to the promotion and protection of consumer interests in relation to the supply of goods and the provision of services to ensure protection of life, health and safety of consumers and others.

In her address at the CAC’s virtual Consumer Talks session on September 29, Legal Officer, CAC, Sacha-Gaye Russell, outlined responsibilities under the Act that all consumers should observe.

These are the responsibility to be aware of the quality and safety of goods and services before purchase; the responsibility to gather all available information and facts about a product or service; and keeping abreast of changes and innovations in the marketplace.

“Take note of the serial number of the appliance that you select, so that after you make payment for that appliance and it is delivered to you, you can check the serial number of the appliance that is delivered to ensure it is the same serial number as the one you selected when you were in the store,” she advised, recommending that consumers test appliances and electronics before leaving the store.

In the information-gathering phase, she recommended that consumers check consumer product review sites prior to purchase.

Ms. Russell also suggested that persons check the Consumer Product Safety Commission website to see if there has been any recall in relation to a particular item. Consumers should also query if the item has been refurbished, the warranty and return policy of the vendor, particularly for high-value transactions, prior to purchase (mobile phones, large appliances, motor vehicles), and retain receipts of purchase, particularly for these transactions. She informed that under the CPA, the store warranty period should be similar to that of the manufacturer.

Regarding purchase of a service, she recommended that consumers research the total cost to ensure that they are aware of all the add-on costs included in the purchase. “It is important that consumers ask all the relevant questions of the provider who is offering the service to ensure they have the budget [for purchase and maintenance],” she said.

In addition, consumers have the responsibility to think independently and to make choices about well-considered needs and wants, the responsibility to respect the environment and avoid waste and litter contributing to the pollution of the environment, and to be ethical and fair by not entering into dishonest practices.

“Consumers should not be deceitful about a purchase or transaction, for example, claiming that an item is faulty when the item is not defective,” Ms. Russell said, noting that redress cannot be claimed for items damaged during the installation process or for items that are not used for the purpose for which there were designed.

By the same token, she said the vendor has a responsibility to inform the consumer of all details of the product or service. Consumers also have the responsibility to speak out and inform manufacturers and the Government of their needs and wants; and the responsibility to let grievances be known and inform businesses of dissatisfaction with a product or service in a fair, honest and respectable manner.

“Through your voice, you impact policy and standards so that better laws are passed and better-quality goods are produced,” Ms. Russell said.

The CAC is the national agency responsible for consumer advocacy. For more information, persons are invited to visit cac.gov.jm.

CRUISE UPTICK BEGINS FOR JAMAICA Royal Caribbean International will increase calls to Jamaica in November and there are more than 110 planned cruise ship visits from October through April 2022 by Carnival Cruise Line. Royal Caribbean in a press release says it intends to resume cruises with limited operations as of November, after 18 months in mothballs due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Plans from Carnival include more than 110 cruise ship visits by its various brands that could carry more than 200,000 visitors to the island between October 2021 and April 2022.

The communications said that these operations will be subject to agreements between Jamaican authorities and the cruise lines. These cruise updates were provided during meetings with Royal Caribbean and Carnival last week in Miami.

Jamaica resumed welcoming cruise ships back to its shores in September 2021.

Cruises must meet measures governing the restart of cruise shipping, requiring passengers over the age of 12 and crew to be fully vaccinated and for all passengers to provide evidence of negative results from a COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of sailing.

The Port Authority's Cruise Jamaica website indicates that the island has won several worldclass awards as a World Leading Cruise Destination.

The Port Authority operates cruise ports at Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, Falmouth and Port Antonio. Montego Bay, Ocho Rios and Falmouth — located on the north coast — are equipped to handle the largest cruise ships. Port Antonio is a port of call for 'boutique' cruise ships and mega yachts.

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