Minister Bartlett announces US$650 million fund for tourism Incubator Innovators

Jamaica Tourism Minister Hon. Edmund Bartlett revealed participants in the Tourism Innovation Incubator will have access to US$650,600.

The participants’ ideas are chosen for implementation, and the funds will transform those ideas into profitable projects. The Tourism Innovation Incubator is an initiative of the Ministry of Tourism, established through the Tourism Enhancement Fund to incentivize ideas that can enhance Jamaica’s tourism industry on the premise that the future will be driven by ideas which in turn drive innovation and invention.

Speaking during a welcome reception for the start of the Tech Beach Retreat at the Iberostar resort recently, Jamaica Tourism Minister Bartlett said “I have put JA$100 million (US$650,600) in EXIM Bank for the new ideas which are converted into material things that add value.”

The Tourism Innovation Incubator is a business development center for individuals such as entrepreneurs who have innovative ideas that can impact the tourism sector. Its purpose is to provide a unique and highly flexible combination of services, including business support services and infrastructure. It will also nurture the young entrepreneurs and support them through the early stages of development and execution.

Convinced that tourism: “Is driven by ideas,” Minister Bartlett said post COVID-19, innovation will play a major role in taking Jamaica’s industry to higher levels of achievement.

“After the recovery started, we learnt how all the other disruptions have come that are now going to be challenging and new ideas is what we need to meet those challenges,” said Minister Bartlett.

It was outlined that the rollout of the Tourism Innovation Incubator was accomplished with an injection of JA$40 million and the first 13 inductees were introduced to Minister Bartlett earlier this week.

Elaborating on the JA$100 million funding facility, Mr. Bartlett said: “We are saying to the young people, when you have come with your ideas to the Incubator and we take you through the boot camp and your ideas have been proven to have value, then we will provide you with initial funding to convert those ideas fully into material things.”

He also pointed to the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre located at the University of the West Indies, Mona, which evolved out of an idea prior to the pandemic and whose function is to anticipate disruptions, mitigate and manage them to recover quickly and thrive.

Mr. Bartlett revealed that the eight satellite centers already established across the globe, “will be followed by eight more in Bosnia, Herzegovina; Botswana, Rwanda, Namibia, Japan, and at the Sofia University in Bulgaria by the middle of next year.”

He added that “the purpose of that is to bring young people across the globe to start thinking about one subject called tourism resilience and how to build capacity to respond to disruptions, to bounce back fast and to thrive.”

Tech Beach is designed to drive a paradigm shift in the economic outlook of Jamaica by attracting an audience of global business luminaries, innovators, and investors.

The key pillars on which it is built are transforming the international business image of Jamaica, human capital development, upskilling the workforce to be globally competitive, attracting global investment and partnerships to create more jobs on the island. Likewise, it focuses on strengthening engagement with international counterparts and the Diaspora, promoting entrepreneurship and driving thought leadership in business, technology and innovation.

SEEN IN MAIN IMAGE:  Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett (left) shares a cordial moment with co-founders of Tech Beach, Kirk Anthony Hamilton (center) of Jamaica and Trinidadian Kyle Maloney at a cocktail reception ahead of the start of the three-day retreat at the Iberostar resort in Montego Bay on Thursday, December 8, 2022. – image courtesy of Jamaica Ministry of Tourism

MEDIA CONTACT:

Corporate Communications Division

Ministry of Tourism

64 Knutsford Boulevard

Kingston 5

Tel: (876) 920-4926-30

Or

Kingsley Roberts

Senior Director, Corporate Communications

Ministry of Tourism

64 Knutsford Boulevard

Kingston 5

Tel: 920-4926-30, ext.: 5990

Cell: (876) 505-6118

Fax: 920-4944