MONTEGO BAY, St James — Jamaica’s leading annual tourism industry gathering, the Jamaica Product Exchange (JAPEX), organized by the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), will break with decades of tradition this year, hosting the flagship marketing event in Ocho Rios rather than its long-time home of Montego Bay. The sudden venue change is a direct response to ongoing room shortages across western Jamaica, as the region continues its slow recovery from the devastating impact of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa that struck last October.
Christopher Jarrett, president of the JHTA, confirmed the relocation in an interview with Jamaica Observer on Monday, noting that insufficient available accommodation in the Montego Bay area left industry leaders with no other viable option. For years, JAPEX has been held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre, drawing thousands of global tourism stakeholders, travel buyers and hospitality operators each year while generating significant revenue for local hotels, restaurants and attractions across western Jamaica.
While Jarrett has not yet released details of the exact Ocho Rios venue set to host the 2026 edition of the event, he emphasized that the move is part of a broader, industry-wide adaptive strategy that will remain in place until western Jamaica’s tourism infrastructure fully rebounds from the hurricane damage.
“We intend to continue to pivot as best we can to ensure that the events are still in Jamaica — whether it’s in Ocho Rios, Montego Bay or Kingston,” Jarrett said, underscoring the association’s commitment to keeping the iconic industry event on Jamaican soil despite current challenges.
Industry insiders report that the Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) tourism segment has been hit particularly hard by post-hurricane disruptions across western Jamaica, a reality Jarrett openly acknowledged. “We are seeing some of that but we have been pivoting and moving it across the island,” he conceded.
Compounding the post-storm recovery challenges is ongoing geopolitical instability in the Middle East, which has driven a measurable drop in visitor arrivals from several of Jamaica’s traditional source markets. But Jarrett pointed to pre-emptive diversification efforts that the JHTA launched years before the current conflict, which are already beginning to offset losses in established markets.
“Over the last few years, there’s been a build-up in focus on the Latin America market and we’re seeing some of those results now. We remain optimistic because we expect that the Latin American market, which has been more vibrant in recent times, will take up some of the slack that we’ll lose from the United States,” Jarrett explained.
The veteran hospitality leader stressed that pro-active mitigation work carried out by the JHTA and its public and private sector partners has put Jamaica in a strong position to navigate the overlapping economic and infrastructure shocks. “We are concerned, we are definitely concerned but I’m just saying that whatever we should have been doing to mitigate this situation that exists now, we were already doing,” he said.
He highlighted expanded air access as a key driver of growth in new source markets, noting that Copa Airlines has increased flight capacity to Jamaica from Latin American hubs. “we are hopeful and optimistic that notwithstanding the fallout in the US market that we’ll see some pick-up,” he added.
While Jarrett admitted that Jamaica’s tourism sector has not yet returned to the pre-storm, pre-conflict level of activity that stakeholders hope for, he said the industry is doubling down on promoting the island’s core competitive advantages: safety, security and a seamless travel experience for international visitors, in partnership with the state-run Jamaica Tourist Board.
Beyond attracting international visitors, the industry is also turning to domestic consumers to fill empty room inventories, ramping up promotion of domestic staycations. Jarrett noted that while national campaign coordination has been left to individual property operators, many hotels have already launched targeted promotions and discounted rates for Jamaican residents.
“if you talk to the hoteliers individually, they will tell you that they’ve been encouraging staycations. You may have seen a few ads out for special rates for locals and so on,” he added.
That call for domestic support was echoed by Kerry Ann Quallo-Casserly, chair of the JHTA’s Montego Bay chapter, who urged Jamaicans who typically travel abroad for vacation to choose domestic getaways to support the recovering industry. “Locals who would normally go to places like Dubai, USA should choose staycations,” she urged.