By Gerald Miller, Gleaner WriterFINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS have stalled the Negril Marketing Committee's efforts to showcase the town as a tourist destination, through effective public relations programmes. These would include inviting travel agents and travel writers to the resort town, with the sole purpose of promoting it in the United States.
However, Carolyn Wright, chairperson of the Negril Chapter of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) said that even though the overseas public relations exercise is put on hold, efforts are still being made by players in the industry to market Negril as a destination.
In fact, Wright said, on August 22 there is going to be a fund-raising dinner in aid of the reggae marathon normally held in Negril in the month of December,which normally attracts both local and foreign visitors.
Three years ago the Negril Marketing Committee was launched with a lot of fanfare. It was spearheaded by the Negril Chamber of Commerce. Its mandate was to market the resort town by engaging the services of public relations firms, which would help to position and promote Negril as a tourist destination.
But, this initiative, according to Kenric Davis, President of the Negril Chamber of Commerce, hit a snag. "We have to put it on hold for right now, because we owe some money. However, it is not a lot of money and we are trying to work out something with the people in Miami", said Davis.
According to Davis, The Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) was to pump US$100,000 into the marketing committee, but it had reneged on its commitment and, consequently, the marketing committee had only received US$60,000.
Davis is very optimistic that as soon as the committee gets over its current financial challenges it will continue in this regard, as "marketing is of paramount importance."
According to him, "marketing cannot be too much." He said that Cheryl Andrews Marketing had been very effective in promoting Negril.
"The campaign was quite effective and we got value for money", said Davis. Meanwhile, he said that despite the absence of any serious public relations effort overseas for small hotels, he has seen an upsurge in visitor arrivals.
