#KINGSTON, Jan. 17 (JIS): Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, says he wants the annual Jamaica Rum Festival to become a part of the island’s tourism offerings, and has given the Ministry’s support to help make the event an established product.
Speaking at the launch of the
Festival on January 15 at Devon House in Kingston, the Minister said that the
Ministry, along with the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), is pumping $6 million
into the festival as part of its partnership with the rum companies that are
hosting the festival.
The
event will be held from February 29 to March 1 at Hope Gardens in Kingston.
“We
want the Rum Festival to be a product, not an event. And so from this day forth,
all the infrastructure required to make this festival a product will be put in
place with the support of the Ministry, to make sure that every year we can go
to the market and package this festival with rooms and with seats and bring the
visitors to Jamaica to consume this critical asset,” the Minister said.
He argued that the Rum Festival, coupled
with the recently launched Coffee Festival, will serve to enhance the country’s
global appeal as a travel destination, and strengthen the country’s gastronomical
appeal.
“We have been able to bring five critical areas of what we call the passions of people… which drive people to travel, and food is the number-one reason why people travel,” the Minister said.
“So
the right thing to do is to build out food experiences, because when you do
that, you will be bringing the enticement, the allurement, the glue, the pull
that will take the visitors to your destination,” he added.
For her part, Director of Marketing,
J. Wray and Nephew Limited, Marsha Lumley, said the rum company is proud to be
building Jamaica’s lifestyle product, while expressing delight that the
festival was dubbed as one of the significant milestones of the tourism
industry last year by the Ministry.
“For
Appleton Estate, the Rum Festival is a continued investment to propel our range
of blends and ensure that a bit of our island’s golden spirit is in every glass,
not only in Jamaica but across the globe,” she said.
Ms. Lumley also thanked her partners
in the rum industry – Monymusk, Hampden Estate, Wray and Nephew White Overproof
Rum, Charley’s JB Rum, Sangster’s Rum Cream and Worthy Park Estate Rum – for
helping to further elevate the industry as a global leader.
The two-day event, which will be
jointly staged by the Tourism Ministry and the TEF, in collaboration with J.
Wray and Nephew Limited’s Appleton Estate Jamaica Rum, aims to promote various
ways in which rum can be utilised and enjoyed, boost Kingston’s tourism product
and showcase Jamaica’s cultural excellence in food, beverage and music.
Patrons
will be exposed to the rum-making process, and allowed to sample a variety of
blends.