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Message from the<br />
MINISTER<br />
of<br />
TOURISM<br />
I<br />
am pleased to extend sincere congratulations to the<br />
team at Steady Image, Touchstone Productions, and<br />
their many partners, as they stage the highly-anticipated<br />
return of the Jamaica Jazz and Blues music festival.<br />
The Ministry of Tourism, through our marketing arm the Jamaica<br />
Tourist Board (JTB), is happy to once again collaborate with you for<br />
this prestigious musical event, which will be hosted in a virtual format.<br />
Over the years, the festival has presented numerous exceptional<br />
artistes, including Celine Dion, Beres Hammond, Chaka Khan, Shaggy,<br />
Aaron Neville and Tessanne Chin. Therefore, like most viewers, I<br />
am really looking forward to seeing this year’s spectacular line up<br />
of both local and international performers.<br />
I must extend special commendation to the team for not only<br />
making this event free of charge to viewers, but for your pledge<br />
to assist some of our entertainment practitioners who have<br />
been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, through a charity<br />
component of the event.<br />
We are overjoyed to see the creative industries slowly<br />
coming back to life and applaud you for using innovative<br />
means to showcase the best of Jamaica’s music and<br />
culture to the world.<br />
The Network is comprised of key sport<br />
and entertainment practitioners who<br />
have been charged to lead this effort.<br />
Some of the key initiatives of the network<br />
include the promotion of festivals; the<br />
coordination of established activities/<br />
events for the Tourism Calendar; as well as<br />
greater collaboration with event promoters<br />
and venue managers to package and<br />
promote local music events and festivals to<br />
help eliminate seasonality. This is an initiative<br />
we are driving with my colleague, Minister<br />
Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange and her team at the<br />
Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment<br />
and Sport.<br />
We are seeing positive outcomes as we continue<br />
to support the building out of captivating<br />
entertainment experiences. I once again<br />
congratulate the entire team for bringing the<br />
Jamaica Jazz and Blues music festival back,<br />
and wish you a successful staging of this<br />
outstanding event.<br />
8<br />
Entertainment tourism is one of the main niche<br />
areas, which we have been placing special focus<br />
on, in order to further diversify our tourism<br />
product and tap into new markets. The Sports<br />
and Entertainment Network of the Ministry’s<br />
Tourism Linkages Network was created as one<br />
of those strategic steps towards capitalizing<br />
on Jamaica’s potential in this area.<br />
HON. EDMUND BARTLETT, CD, MP
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