1970s

Discover Jamaica

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The ‘Meet The People’ programme paired visitors with local families for an immersive cultural experience started in January 1969. In 1973-1974 1,200 Jamaican volunteers hosted 6,000 visitors through the programme.

Tourism studies were introduced in schools and a JTB School Essay Competition was launched. Tourism Month was celebrated in October 1972.

The mid 70s were turbulent years for Jamaica. As a result, at the end of 1976 visitor arrivals were 470,714 compared to 555,258 in 1975

The JTB’s response was to declare 1976 the year to ‘Discover Jamaica’, arguably one of the most memorable campaigns in the island’s tourism history.

In 1976 the JTB initiated its first concerted effort to attract the African American Visitors to come to Jamaica by targeting publications, such as Essence and Ebony. There was also an effort to get Jamaicans at home to enjoy the vacation experience of their homeland.

The ‘Welcome Back to Jamaica’ campaign ran from 1976-1977 and targeted return visitors to the island, who were more likely to travel despite the bad press, having experienced Jamaica for themselves.

The 1977 tagline, ‘We’re more than a beach…we’re a country’ gave voice to national pride and aspirations to change foreign perspectives of Jamaica as simply a winter destination. Advertisements featured beautiful images of Jamaica’s greatest asset: it’s people.

Despite the social turmoil, in 1979 visitor figures topped 593,571, the highest in the decade of the 70s