Appetiser: To the World - A duet of plump shrimp stuffed with crabmeat wrapped with smoked salmon on a light saffron cream, and smoked duck breast spring roll on pineapple peppercorn compote and citrus sauce.

The impressive performance of the Jamaican team at the recent World Championships in Athletics in Berlin, Germany, may have already started to reap benefits for the island's tourism sector.

Eighty-eight travel agents recently spent a week in Jamaica at Sandals Resorts properties in Montego Bay, Negril and Ocho Rios to get a first-hand taste of the island in a move expected to boost tourist arrival figures from Germany.

And although the mega familiarisation trip was organised months before the Berlin championships, Jamaica's 13-medal haul certainly helped the cause, according to Jörn Krausser, director for Latin America, the Caribbean and Indian Ocean for Dertour, Germany's largest travel agency, which brought the agents to Jamaica.

"It definitely gives it this huge PR push - everyone was stunned (at the performances)," Krausser told reporters last Wednesday at Sandals Dunn's River.

The trip was organised by Sandals in conjunction with the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) and CaribicVacations, ground handlers for Dertour.

Traditional markets

Though Germany remains a small supplier of tourists to Jamaica, when compared to traditional markets such as the United States and Canada, it is the No. 1 source in Europe, if figures for Britain are to be discounted, because of Jamaica's massive diaspora there.

Roper expressed confidence that the PR push will bear fruit in the future.

"It's a developing market that, if we work at, we will certainly get business," he said.

Meanwhile, Sandra Lauer, executive assistant at Caribic Vacations, said the idea for the mega fam came earlier this year during ITB in Berlin, the world's leading travel trade show.

"During ITB the idea came up for a meg fam trip to bring in a large group of travel agents to the island to show them the product in order to bring sales," Lauer explained.

During their one-week stay, the travel agents were exposed to aspects of Jamaica"s music, food, culture and other areas of life.

Did you know ...?

The Jamaican-German Society, which was formed in 1954, meets (as of next week) on Friday evenings at the organisation's new headquarters at Villa Maria, 33 Seymour Avenue, Kingston 6, where it hosts regular socials featuring German beer and sausages.