Tourism Product Development Co.Ltd

TOURISM PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT CO.LTD

ENHANCING THE TOURISM EXPERIENCE URECON / LOGSTOR

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TOURISM PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

OF TOURISM Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to Dr. Andrew Spencer, Executive Director of Jamaica’s Tourism Product Development Company, about stewarding major development projects, sharing the benefits of the industry with local people, and a path for the future of Jamaica’s economy.

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TRASH TO TREASURE: TPDCO BRANDING AT THE TRASH TO TREASURE LAUNCH

The Tourism Product Development Company Limited (TPDCo) is the Jamaican government agency tasked with maintaining, developing, and enhancing Jamaica’s tourism product. TPDCo works with other agencies and the private sector to co-ordinate projects in accordance with the Ministry of Tourism’s Five-Year Strategic Vision for Tourism Development in Jamaica, working under the longstanding Minister of Tourism, the Honorable Edmund Bartlett MP. With over 200 employees, TPDCo has a head office in Kingston and regional offices across the country.

“We refer to ourselves as the destination assurance agency for Jamaica,” says Dr. Andrew Spencer, Executive Director of TPDCo. “We ensure all the substance is in place to support the marketing efforts of the Tourist Board. We do this through our various departments. Standards and Quality deals with inspection of properties, attractions, and places of interest, and makes recommendations for those entities to be licensed. Our

A SCENIC VIEW OF THE RECENTLY UPGRADED MARKING STONE BEACH

A GRADUATE OF THE FALMOUTH TOUR GUIDE TRAINING RECEIVES HIS CERTIFICATE FROM DR. SPENCER. SHARING IN THE MOMENT (EXTREME LEFT) IS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF JAMAICA VACATIONS, JOY ROBERTS

Training Department delivers the Team Jamaica program, which is mandatory certification for all workers in the hospitality industry.

Our Craft Department trains individuals to produce high-quality artisanal products. The Product Development Department identifies business opportunities and helps Jamaicans enter the tourist industry by helping them with business plans and attract funding. We also have a Projects Department, where we have technical employees like architects, quantity surveyors, and engineers, who are tasked with ensuring the aesthetic appeal of destination areas.”

VITAL INDUSTRY Though tourism is tied with remittances as Jamaica’s joint-topmost earner, if anything, this belies the industry’s importance to the Jamaican economy. Tourism brings in more than half of Jamaica’s foreign exchange, and around one in four Jamaicans are employed by the industry. Tourism also encourages the diversification of the Jamaican economy, necessitating a whole gamut of economically-complex services, including well-managed air and sea ports, accommodation, transportation, food, electricity, telecommunications, and entertainment, all of which stimulates investment across a broad canvas of local business and infrastructure.

In order to manage a wide and diverse geographical area, TPDCo has set up six Destination Assurance Councils, each tasked with overseeing a specific resort area. “The councils are comprised of businesses and key stakeholders in each area,” says Dr. Spencer. “The resort areas are Kingston and URECON / LOGSTOR

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TOURISM PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

DR. SPENCER GREETS HON. EDMUND BARTLETT, MINISTER OF TOURISM (RIGHT) AT THE DISTRICT CONSTABLES PROGRAMME CLOSING CEREMONY.

South Coast, Montego Bay, Negril, Falmouth, St. Ann and St. Mary, and Portland and St. Thomas. These councils then make recommendations to TPDCo’s destination managers in each area, who filter this information into our offices.”

A new project for TPDCo is the creation of so-called Tourism Innovation Cities.

“Whenever a major resort is developed, there should be in and around that community further development which allows the community to provide for the needs of tourism,” explains Dr. Spencer. “In Montego Bay, which is our first Tourism Innovation City, we’re looking at all the communities in that

DR ANDREW SPENCER PRESENTING AT THE TOURISM SERVICE EXCELLENCE AWARDS

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area, finding what areas of linkage we can establish, and how we can help those people to thrive. For example, those people can start to supply the food provision. They can start providing entertainment in proximity to the hotels. This will mean the average Jamaican in these communities can earn, and it will also means that, when a tourist walks outside the gates of a hotel, he can walk into a community where he can have a similar quality experience along with an authentic interaction with the locals. This push is in the early stages, but we believe it’s going to transform social and economic development in Jamaica.”

PROUD HERITAGE Over 40% of tourists to Jamaica are repeat visitors. “This is something we’re hugely proud of, and we wanted to know what the critical elements were that were driving people to come back,” says Dr. Spencer. “We found that, in addition to wonderfully-maintained spaces, we have an intangible culture which is considered to be a huge pull. So we make every effort to weave our unique Jamaican culture into our tourism offerings.

Many of our internationally-recognized attractions are heritage attractions. Our Product Development Department has been tasked

with ensuring that all business proposals have that element of heritage, and we also recently hired two heritage officers on our staff for the first time in the history of the company.”

One particular heritage project TPDCo worked on recently was the Devon House ice cream parlor expansion. “The history of Devon House is a huge part of the product offering in Jamaica,” says Dr. Spencer.

“We thought the ice cream shop required development, in terms of accommodation for customers and more visual appeal. We were the project managers for that project, involved from design to implementation.

Today, the capacity is improved, and it’s a first-class-looking facility. In the future, we’re going to be looking at the overall configuration of Devon House and trying to create similar accommodations throughout for other entities which operate in that space, to create a more seamless configuration.”

UPGRADING AND ENHANCING Another major project for TPDCo is their recent Beaches Upgrading Project. “It used to be that the private beaches, for tourists only, were seen as significantly superior in quality to what local people are able to be a part of,” says Dr. Spencer. “The

COMMUNITY TOURISM: DR. SPENCER (CENTER) IS JOINED BY PARTICIPANTS OF THE 2017 COMMUNITY TOURISM TOOLKIT TRAINING

Beaches Upgrading Project means that all Jamaicans can visit great beaches. We recently completed a major upgrade at Marking Stone Beach in St. Mary, and at Lyssons Beach in St. Thomas. We’re now completing the Mount Salem Beach in St. Ann, and we’re preparing to do major works at the Norman Manley Beach Park in Negril. Soon, we’ll have one exceptional public beach in every one of the fourteen parishes of Jamaica.”

TPDCo also recently completed a new welcome sign at the Montego Bay roundabout. “It’s all part of that intangible cultural experience,” says Dr. Spencer. “More than 80% of all travelers to the country come through the Montego Bay Airport, so we created this fantastic, iconic experience at the roundabout. That was completed in January, and it is already becoming an attraction for people.”

DEVELOPING JAMAICA As tourists continue flocking to Jamaica, their impact on the Jamaican economy – and the lives of ordinary Jamaicans – only grows. “We’ve been seeing our visitor arrival number going up,” says Dr. Spencer. “Last year it was 4.3 million visitors, with in excess of 3 billion U.S. dollars in earnings. We have a target of 5 million

visitors and 5 billion dollars. We’ve also been looking at the retention of the dollar in the Jamaican economy, and we’ve seen it move from 30 cents of each dollar to 40 cents. That means more of the money is staying in the economy and having that ripple effect, which means it has a real impact on people’s lives.”

As part of their mandate, TPDCo ensure that workers in the tourism industry reap the benefits. “We recently came up

with a pension plan which is just about to be taken to Parliament to become law, which means every single person working in the industry will have a proper pension,” says Dr. Spencer. “Then there’s the Jamaica Center of Tourism Innovation (JCTI), which I’m the chairman for as well, which certifies talented Jamaicans who may have the skills but don’t have any paper qualifications. We started this program in high schools, and now we’re tapping into

A GRADUATE OF THE TPDCO ADMINISTERED DISTRICT CONSTABLE TRAINING PROGRAMME GIVES REMARKS AT THE CLOSING CEREMONY

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TOURISM PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

“LAST YEAR IT WAS 4.3 MILLION VISITORS, WITH IN EXCESS OF 3 BILLION U.S. DOLLARS IN EARNINGS.”

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A SECTION OF THE RECENTLY RENOVATED RESTROOM AT THE MARKING STONE BEACH. THE RENOVATION FORMED PART OF THE MINISTRY OF TOURISM’S BEACH DEVELOPMENT PROJECT.

people who already work in the industry.

We also ensure the environment is protected, by partnering with organizations like Recycling Partners of Jamaica. The recent ban on plastic was a major move to keep our water spaces clean.”

ONWARD AND UPWARD “Where tourism develops in Jamaica, the people in and around that area develop,” says Dr. Spencer. “You have better roads.

You have better infrastructure. You have greater access to facilities like beaches.

In the future, we’re expecting to see an

even greater direct contribution to GDP, with a double-digit contribution in the next decade. We’re also looking to see greater involvement of the population in the industry, and a strengthening of the educational programs for tourism and hospitality. We’re partnering now with UWI to develop a graduate school in tourism.”

“We’re also looking to see the development of the towns, with individuals able to derive a very substantial living from the industry,” says Dr. Spencer. “When we have greater inclusiveness of locals, we’re going to see a natural reduction of

ambivalence to the tourism industry, and a united Jamaica that understands the power of tourism to build lives and build the country. It will contribute to all the social services, education, and health. Lastly, I want to mention that a lot of the benefits we have had are directly related to our visionary Minister of Tourism, the Honorable Edmund Bartlett. We follow his lead in seeing tourism as something that will not just affect one class of society, but that every single Jamaican will have a hand in its growth, as the fastest and most impactful way to build our nation.” c URECON / LOGSTOR

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Tourism Product Development Co.Ltd The Tourism Centre, 4th Floor 64-70 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5 o: 876-968-3441 876-968-1909 876-968-3626 www.tpdco.org

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