AFTER 30 YEARS, THE JAMAICA TOURIST BOARD FINALLY INKS SPONSORSHIP DEAL WITH STING!

By Curtis Campbell–

The Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) will sponsor Sting for the first time in 30 years.

The legendary stage show, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary this year, plans to do so in fine style by making the cultural product available to millions of patrons world-wide via pay-per-view, and will feature aperformance from American rapper 2Chainz.

The revelation of Sting’s partnership with the Jamaica Tourist Board was made on Monday evening at the Jamaican leg of the launch hosted at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

According to Jason Hall, the deputy director of the JTB, Sting is an iconic Jamaican event which attracts visitors to the island. He also said the tourist board was not part of the event for many years; however, he hopes the budding relationship will last for many years to come.

“I just want to say that events on a whole are very critical to the tourist board not only attracting people to come to the destination, but also the media that comes here generates volumes of public debate for the destination. Sting is such an iconic Jamaican event and, in that regard, we are very excited to be on board this year, and I think the guys are doing something veryspecial,” Hall said.

According to the deputy director, the fact that the event is able to celebrate 30 years on December 26 shows its importance and relevance to the Jamaican people.

“It’s a showcase of unprecedented scale of Jamaican culture, and we look forward to another 30 years,” Hall concluded.

Minister of Youth and Culture Lisa Hanna, who sold herself as a long-time supporter of Sting, says she attended her first Sting in the ’90s and has been hooked since.

“This Sting is not going to miss me either, because the Don Dadda Super Cat is going to be there, and anywhere the Don Dadda is, mi haffi deh deh … something surviving 30 years, especially in a time like this, is not an easy task,” she said.

Hanna says she was happy that Sting was making moves to tap into the technology age by expanding their audience through pay-per-view. She says the Internet is clearly one of the tools which, if used properly, will stimulate growth in Jamaica’s cultural wealth.

However, Minister Hanna wasn’t the only member of government who showed support at the launch. Tourism State Minister Damion Crawford said he would also be at Jamworld on December 26 to “shell it down”.

dancehall not violent

He also defended dancehall from its many critics, saying there was no evidence of a correlation between the genre and violence.

The minister, who recently won a selecting clash against Daryl Vaz, says he witnessed several clashes at Sting which were not violent.

He also indicated that it was hypocrisy to say that dancehall contributed to violence, when the same is not being said of cartoons, movies and games with violent content.

In 2012, local promoter GT Taylor spoke out against some members of corporate Jamaica, including the Jamaica Tourist Board, saying they weren’t supporting some of those local events that had shown relevance and an ability to attract visitors.

Fast-forward to 2013, and it would appear that the Jamaica Tourist Board has had a change of heart and has finally decided to sponsor events like Sting, dubbed the ‘Greatest One-Night Show on Earth’.