Kingston (Jamaica), Sep 1 : Jamaican officials expect the country's "illustrious" performance at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing will result in greater national development and the nation's international popularity.
At the World meet which concluded on Sunday, athletes from the Caribbean island garnered seven gold medals, including the men's 100 metres, 200m, 4x100m, women's 100m, 4x100m, 4x400m, and 100m hurdles, two silver medals and three bronzes, reports Xinhua.
This performance made the sprinting powerhouse finish second on the medals tally behind Kenya, beating neighbour United States to third place for the first time.
"I am so proud of the illustrious performance of all my children during the entire championships," said Jamaica's Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, who is also the country's sports minister, on Monday.
"Jamaica continues to be blessed with the greatest athletics tradition in the world supported by our supremely talented world class athletes, great coaches and other support staff, committed and competent sporting administrators and a supportive public."
The prime minister expects her country's athletic accomplishment will turn into the inspiration for national development.
"In the journey for greater national development, the entire nation can take inspiration from the examples of hard work, discipline, teamwork and determination demonstrated yet again by Jamaica's athletes," she said.
Meanwhile, entertainment and tourism minister Wykeham McNeill highlighted Jamaica's performance at the World Championships as "considerable and positive" impact on the country's international popularity.
"The outstanding performance of our athletes in Beijing has had a tremendous effect on brand Jamaica. The eyes of the world were on our athletes, especially Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and as a result there was a greater awareness about Jamaica," he said.
McNeill, accompanied by other tourism officials, stayed in Beijing for five days to participate in activities aimed at marketing destination Jamaica during the championships. During the visit, they met leading travel and tourism stakeholders to explore opportunities to benefit the island's tourism sector and increase visitors from Asia.
As part of its strategy to attract visitors from the immense Chinese visitor market, the Jamaican government in February 2014 approved the conditional waiving of visa requirements for Chinese nationals travelling to Jamaica for tourism within periods of 30 days or less.
Earlier this year, a world cruise tour saw some 1,000 Chinese visitors arrive at Ocho Rios, a tourist city on the north coast of Jamaica, the single largest number of Chinese visitors to arrive on the island via cruise.
Recalling Bolt's victory in 100m and 200m and his equally good performance at the 2008 Beijing Games, McNeill said: "It's good to hear reggae music back in the Birds Nest and Usain has again put Jamaica on the front pages all across the globe. It was an opportunity to utilise this sort of popularity to engage the travel industry in China."
