 Good day and welcome to Issues and Answers. I am your host for today, Jacques Hingson Compton. Today we're going to be talking about a new mobile application and web application called Travel Jammy. And with me is Vanessa Julian, the country manager of the company Travel Jammy. Nigel Jones, the application developer and his business partner, Mr. Wilbert Mason. Welcome everybody to the program. Good morning. Thank you so much, Jacques. So Ms. Julian, let's start with you. Could you tell us a little bit about the company Travel Jammy? Tell us a little bit about the history and where you're based and all that. All right. So Travel Jammy is a web developing company. They do quite a bit in the industry of digital applications. The company itself is based in Canada. This is the headquarters. And of course, I came on board from St. Lucia. The company has been in business many years. The app developer, Mr. Jones, along with his team are the ones basically putting together these exciting technologies. And Mr. Jones, let's move on to you. Can you tell us a little bit about the application, the platform and its purpose? Mr. Jones? Yes. Okay, just checking. Can you both hear me? Yes, I hear you now. Right. So I was speaking to Ms. Julian about the history of the company. But from you, I wanted to know a little bit about the application. Can you tell us a little bit about the platform and what its purpose is? This is directed to me? Yes, Mr. Jones. Okay, yes. So pretty much the meaning of Jammy is for a community. And pretty much the platform is about pretty much bringing the Caribbean together as one unit so that we can promote our rich culture to the world. But instead of every country or every island doing it themselves, we think together we can make more sense and we can be more effective. So Travel Jammy pretty much was created to promote the Caribbean. But at extension, it's a global platform. But we will start with the Caribbean. And the fact that we all are from the Caribbean, one way or the other, you're living there or originally from the Caribbean, we will like to make this work for our Caribbean community. Mr. Wilbert Mason, this next question is actually directed at you. What makes this application different from others that are like it? What makes this different is that I think the versatility of where you, for example, you have an app, if you're going to say, for example, Grenada, and you download an app of Grenada. And with all of the activities you're going to do when you get to Grenada, you're only going to use that app when you go to Grenada with Travel Jammy. You can use this app wherever you want to go. Whatever country you're going to go to, you could use this app because there is the app is live in all the other Caribbean islands. So it's one of those apps I think that will, one, it's versatile in terms of they could use it in different locations. Also, two, you have it where a lot of the small businesses, I call them the mom-and-pop, I call them the business that really help to promote authentic tourism. They don't have a platform to, right now, there's not a platform. Travel Jammy provides this platform for small businesses to showcase their products and services at a minimum cost. I mean, I think it's, for us, we want to revolutionize how small businesses exist in the Caribbean and give more small businesses a platform to showcase their product and services. Is it just medium to small businesses or do you involve large? It's large. Every business, I mean, it's the section of the app called the business directory and every, if you want a mechanic, if you want an accountant, anything at all, you can find in the app. It's just like having one of those telephone director in the palm of your hands with additional information, live information. I mean, you could just, I say it's not good to tell just a small business. All businesses in every single industry could think about this app and cover it. Okay, so it's not just in the travel industry. It's all sort of local businesses. Yes, yes. There is a part of it where if you want to find out about, for example, farmers. One of my favorite places when I visit San Lucio is Plas Casab. You can find Plas Casab on the app. It's just things that I think that really help to what I call create what I call authentic experience in the destination. This app definitely has that. Okay, this next question, I guess, Miss Julian could answer it. The businesses that he spoke of, what was the collaborative effort? Like, how did you involve business owners in the country to be a part of the application? Well, of course, yeah, we got in touch with them, sent them the link so that they could, of course, download the app and have a look at it. Walk them through the process of how the app works. Of course, the app is very user-friendly and very easy to use, very easy to navigate. And it's basically a tool, a one-stop shop tool in your hand. And so, of course, I engage with them, show them how it's, you know, all the benefits, all the features of the app. And of course, they bought into it and see the value, you know, of their business being on the app. And you were able to get a wide range of businesses to be actively involved? Yes, yes. Those that we, you know, in discussions we've right now, very big ones. And of course, restaurants, all types of businesses. As Mr. Mason said, you know, the app is available and can be targeted at every single business, hotels, restaurants, auto industries, every single one. And what kind of information do you find specifically on the businesses? Like where they're located, what sort of information do you get? Okay, so, you know, when you go into the app, depending on what the business is, you would first see a photograph, you know, a nice little photo of what the business is. And then when you scroll down, you would find more information. You know, they address contact information and links to their social media pages and so on. Okay, so it's very, very heavily promoting local business. That's good to hear. So we are, everyone, we are due for our first break. So please stay tuned. We'll be back in a moment. Welcome back to Issues and Answers. I'm Jacques Kingston Compton and we're talking about a new mobile application or platform that is Travel Jami. We're speaking with the country manager of Travel Jami. We're speaking with the application developer and his business partner. Now, before we left, we discovered that the app really promotes a lot of the local businesses in St. Lucia and the other countries that you operate from. Mr. Mason, could you tell us a little bit more about some of the other countries where you operate from? Yes, we currently in Jamaica at the moment, in Tanzania. The app is very, very popular in Tanzania, especially those companies that deal with the safari tools it's well received in the African countries. And there are a few of them currently in discussion right now in terms of releasing the app. But it's one of those things where we just want to make sure that we do it very strategically. So Jamaica, Tanzania, and Turkey as well, they start having some discussions. So it's an ongoing process and we thought it would be a great place with strategic leaders to start from as well in the Caribbean. And either Mr. Mason or Mr. Jones could answer this question. What, what, what, can you think back to the beginning? What made you decide to develop this app? Was there, did you see that there was a market for it? Did you see other applications for it? Or like it, sorry? Yeah, the evidence behind travel jammy is, there are two factors. One, myself being in the space of developing applications on the website and seeing the opportunity, seeing that for such a long time, our story, the Caribbean story has been told by someone else outside of the Caribbean. And the fact that technology has become such an important part in our lives. Some of us, the first thing that we do in the morning or the last thing we do at night is to put our cell phone. So the cell phone became like the remote to our lives. So what's best to promote the Caribbean than thinking of producing something like travel jammy? We understand our community. We understand our culture. So we just feel, we just believe that this is the right time for us as Caribbean people to produce a product to tell our own story. And that's pretty much the emphasis behind travel jammy. And Mr. Jones again, could you tell us, could you delve a little more deeply into these, a lot of the features, the specific features that are on the application just so our audience has a better idea of how they can use it? Okay, so the application, it's geo-targeted and pretty much what it means is we can use this application for any country, regardless whether it's in the Caribbean, whether it's in Africa or Asia. The beautiful thing about the application is that we can customize it based on the business needs or the location needs. So if, for example, Trinidad wants to focus on carnival and let's say agriculture only, that can be customized for support Trinidad. If they don't want to focus on tourism and some other sector. So you can choose one location and the interface is completely different to the other. It's very dynamic, but one of the really good things about travel jammy is it does not take up much space, even though it's very comprehensive, you can go on this application and find things that you would not normally even find on Google. Because we go deep into the trenches and get these type of information. We are really there with a lot of focus being placed to be the voice for the voiceless. So the small businesses or the craftsmen in the village who has never been exposed, his business has never been exposed to the world. This is an opportunity for him to showcase his craft at a very, very affordable price. And I think what it is more about travel jammy that is of great value is the way the business is run. Meaning a business individual, one of the business can have a conversation with Will, can have a conversation with myself or Vanessa, you know, just saying listen guys, I really don't have the money to get onto the platform. Can I work with the payment plan? And we will have that conversation and make it happen. We will not let the financial situation become a barrier. Is it really a case where different countries have different sectors that they want to focus on? Can you give us an example of say what Trinidad might want to focus on or any of the countries that you partner with? Well, so far a lot of it is tourism. I think everyone that we spoke to so far, the main interests are tourism. But there are other sectors and as Will would have pointed out earlier is that it's not just about travel and tourism. You want to get your mechanic shop listed on the application in our business directory. This can be done. You have a small farmer, you want to get your produce out there, whether it's to be advertised locally or internationally, it can be done. You also have what's really, really making a great impact is we have two websites that we connect to the application. For restaurant owners, for example, regardless of the size of your restaurant, you want to receive orders digitally. We have what you call jammy kitchen. If you are a farmer, you want to reach a wider audience. For example, in the Caribbean, CMOS has become a big produce that farmers and CMOS producers are looking for the outside market. We have what you call jammy express. So we do offer a lot and we are working both locally within the Caribbean and the diaspora because our goal is to really create that bridge between the diaspora and the Caribbean region. Ms. Julian, this next question is for you. Could you tell us a little bit about some of the international organizations that you work with? In terms of travel jammy. Yes, in terms of travel jammy. We've had a lot of strategic partnerships. Travel.com, a lot of the other, like Travelocity has come on board. Quite a few of the businesses, I know Ms. Jones is the one basically working along with them, but we've had quite a few of the partnerships that have come on board with us. International organizations like Booking.com for instance, they have millions of hotel chains that they work with and of course they have come on board as one of our partners as well. Because they've seen the value of the app. And it's also important to note that though the app has just been launched in St. Lucia, it's already in 64,000 countries. It's already been downloaded and being used. That actually brings me to another question. Do you have an idea of how many users in all that the application of the website has? Mr. Jones can give us some more information on that, but yes, we do have quite a bit of users. That's your question Mr. Jones. Do you have an idea of how many users that you have? Yes, so just a little correction with the statement of Vanessa May. The app actually is in 35 countries and we have had over 64,000 downloads. That's good. And you obviously you're launching, have you launched already in St. Lucia? You're about to launch. We have launched. You have launched. We have launched. So why St. Lucia? Because I mean St. Lucia is an ideal island. I mean we're number one for weddings, you know. We're very known throughout the world. Almost everyone wants to come to St. Lucia and experience our island. Mr. Mason has looked in St. Lucia before. Mr. Jones, they're both Caribbean men and St. Lucia was one of the islands they chose to launch. Now we're due for our second and final break. So I want everyone to please stay with me and the audience. Please stay tuned. We'll be back in a moment. Do you like your opinion? Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. Here it is. Scrolling, I guess. Yeah. So at least you can see, I don't know how. Yeah, that might, it would have to give us access and all that. Yeah. So, what are they putting that in? I think that could be added when we're talking about it. Do you use a video that we have? Yeah. Welcome back to Issues and Answers. I'm your host, Jacques Kingston Compton, and we're talking about the company Travel Jami and their new mobile application. Yes, so Mr. Nigel, could you just explain, Mr. Jones, sorry. I want you to just explain how the ordinary user can download the app and where they can go to find this application. So the application is on both iOS platforms and Android. We go to the App Store and to Play Store, and it's a free download for any user. As I would have previously mentioned, the space is very minimal in terms of the space that it takes up on your phone, but you have a wealth of information available to you including radio stations, videos, live videos. I mean, it's a whole lot of information that you will then be in access after downloading that application. And Mr. Jones as well, it's very good to see a West Indian man who is adept at software development or application development. Could you talk a little bit about how you got into the field and maybe give some words of encouragement to younger persons who might want to get into that field? Well, it's a very simple but yet it's a powerful story how I got into this. I'm a businessman by nature, I always say, and I saw the opportunity. I saw where the world was heading in terms of technology. So I decided, my wife and myself decided about seven years ago, how can we best get into that field? How can we do it? And we decided the best way to acquire a company, an existing company because it's not a one-man show. And our bigger vision was to be one of the leading companies in this space, at least in the Caribbean region because we wanted to do a lot for the Caribbean. So we got into the business of technology. I'll say, as is mentioned maybe about seven years ago, and my advice to the young people, it doesn't matter what age, it's something that you're looking to do career-wise. I think it's a wise choice because as we know everything today, it depends on some online presence. So there will always be an opportunity for the end of the radio to get into, to get employment. I mean it will be competitive but if you put yourself out there, most definitely it can work the other way. Now we're coming very close to the end of the program, so I'm going to approach all of you and ask if there are any final words you have to say. We'll start with Ms. Julian, anything else that you'd like to add before we leave? Sure, I mean I'd just like to encourage solutions to go ahead and download the app. As we said earlier, it really doesn't take up much space on your phone. As a matter of fact, it takes up half the amount of space on your phone. Download it, check it out. It's a great app and I'm sure you will see the value in it once you download it. And Ms. Mason, how about yourself? Yes, I've been in the hospital for 30 plus years and I see this app as a really good way of promoting community tourism and also providing economic empowerment to all people. The government did this when every business, the magazines, everyone wanted to go into magazines, now you can actually be on the app and showcase your business. This app is about creating economic empowerment in all communities. Before I get to Mr. Jones, Mr. Mason, I actually have one more question for you. How do you think these applications such as this or this one specifically will change the travel industry or the tourism sector? Well, for one, I think it will reduce in terms of the space that we pay for marketing. You know, get on a plane from Miami or New York and someone gives you a magazine and say, hey, this is the magazine of San Lucia and there are a limited amount of information in that magazine. Now we have an app that basically not just have things that someone would have paid a lot of money to be in a particular magazine, but they also have all of the small businesses that really help to support the tourism in the San Lucia. So I think in this it's going to change revolution, not revolutionize the way in which we get information sharing information about San Lucia. I think this is, for example, I mean I love going down to the fish fry and where the application will help you get all of these spots contact people. It's just one of those things that I think make it easier for us to share information and not pay a lot of money to get the information out there. Brilliant. So yes, Mr Jones, you, the final, do you have any final words before we leave? My final words is for people to really take advantage of this opportunity here. It can be a very useful tool for the Cooley Wing community and in this case particularly for San Lucia and one of the key things that I would like to point out is that we are creating some very strategic partnerships and which include organizations from the Caribbean. So like the San Lucia organizations in Canada in the US and as we would have mentioned earlier in terms of bridging that gap between the diaspora and the Caribbean. I think this is the application to really make this happen. And as a Caribbean community I think this is an opportunity that we can pretty much promote each other and come together and help in the process as one unit and this can be very successful. Okay, thank you for that. And again, I want to thank you all for joining me on the program. It was a pleasure to talk to everyone. I hope you can come again soon because this is definitely a company that Saint Lucia needs to look out for on a mobile app that I hope that everyone uses as much as possible. You're watching Issues and Answers, the Government Information Service. Please stay tuned to this and other programming. Thank you very much.