Jamaica has no intention of adopting the Spice Isle tagline

By Linda Straker

A top tourism official in Jamaica says that the island has no intention of using the tagline or to rebrand the destination as “The spice island of the Caribbean”.

The claims were made during heated social media discussions as Grenadians locally and abroad expressed approval and or disapproval by the Grenada Ministry of Tourism and the Tourism Authority to rebrand Grenada with a new message of “Pure Grenada”.

Janet Silvera, Senior tourism writer at the Jamaica Gleaner said she heard about the debate and began following it online.

“I then decided to contact Chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board, Dennis Morrison, who described the idea as rubbish because there are so many other taglines that can be used to promote the diversity of the destination,” she said.

“There is no reason why Jamaica would change its tagline to Island of Spice, owing to the diversity that Jamaica has to offer. This is a line one of our neighbours has used over the years, we wouldn’t want to use the same thing,” Silvera quoted Morrison as saying.

As of January 2nd, 2014, not only did the Grenada Tourism Authority take over the promotions and marketing of the island’s tourism product, but the Ministry of Tourism announced that it will be re-branding the destination.

Tourism Minister, Alexandra Otway-Noel, said the new entity was “more fresh, innovative and forward-thinking”, and that it was more able to manage itself and make decisions. She confirmed the GTA will move away from the “the Isle of Spice” slogan and instead adopt “Pure Grenada”.

“We will always be the Spice Island but that doesn’t make people want to come here,” said Otway-Noel.

The new branding will instead emphasise the island’s unique features such as eco-tourism, yachting and world-class diving. Future development on the island will focus on “quality not quantity,” she said.