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Potential Global Economic Downturn and Sargassum real threats to Tourism, says Bartlett

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Jamaica Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett has indicated that Jamaica is taking note that the potential global economic downturn and sargassum phenomena are real threats to the tourism industry.

“We recall the recession of 2008 that impacted economies globally and recognize the need to strategize in light of data and trends. Despite this global recession, Jamaica’s tourism grew by an average 3.5% and we will need to learn from those lessons,” said Minister Bartlett.


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There is general concern that the global economy may be on the verge of a slight downturn and possible recession. There is also concern regarding sargassum, which is a type of seaweed that can negatively impact tourist destinations when washed up on shore. 

Minister Bartlett said, “The possibility of a global economic downturn can have a devastating impact on not only Jamaica’s tourism but the region’s tourism. Coupled with this potential threat is now the impending influx of sargassum on our shores. What this means is that we must act decisively and swiftly to collaborate on the best way forward to get ahead of these threats.” 

Minister Bartlett was speaking at a meeting with members of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) today at the Montego Bay Convention Centre, to discuss the threat of sargassum on the island’s tourism. The meeting included senior officials from the Ministry and its agencies, key hotel stakeholders and President of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourist Association.

“This meeting with our hotel partners is critical as we seek ways to develop economic resilience. These threats have the potential to negatively impact our livelihoods given the fact that the Caribbean is so heavily dependent on tourism.

Potential Global Economic Downturn and Sargassum real threats to Tourism, says Bartlett
Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett (C), at the start of the meeting with key hotel stakeholders at the JHTA to discuss the threat of sargassum on the island’s tourism. Joining Minister Bartlett (L-R) are, President of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association, Omar Robinson, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Mrs. Jennifer Griffith, Executive Director of the Tourism Enhancement Fund, Dr. Carey Wallace and Director of Projects at the Tourism Enhancement Fund, Johan Rampair.

Last year, the Caribbean welcomed 29.9 million visitors and contributed 40% of the region’s GDP but if we do not act, we could see our growth in arrivals and earnings go down,” added Minister Bartlett.  

Minister Bartlett also used the opportunity to have partners from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) make a presentation on their suggested strategy to cut off the sargassum prior to it reaching our shores and to get feedback from hoteliers.

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President of the JHTA, Omar Robinson also highlighted the need to urgently identify solutions to “mitigate against any potential fallout this could have on our tourism product.” 

Minister Bartlett added that as it relates to sargassum, “The Global Tourism and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCM) is leading the charge to collaborate and conduct research to come up with workable solutions. Earlier this week, the GTRCM also met with the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, to explore future collaboration regarding research on the sargassum challenges faced by the Caribbean towards identifying solutions.”

Minister Bartlett, through the GTRCM, recently spearheaded a regional sargassum forum which included mechanical engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Precision Engineering Research Group; and noted researchers from the University of the West Indies, Mona and the GTRCM. 

On October 9 and 10 of this year, the GTRCM will host a second summit with leading researchers geared towards climatic disruptions with a focus on sargassum.                     

Media Contact:                                                                                                      

Corporate Communications Division

Ministry of Tourism

64 Knutsford Boulevard       

Kingston 5

Tel: (876) 920-4926-30

Fax: (876) 906 1729

Tourism Must Tackle Inequalities says Tourism Minister Bartlett

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Jamaica Minister of Tourism, the Hon. Edmund Bartlett says that for tourism to be truly sustainable there must be greater equality among all stakeholders and a more equitable distribution of tourism earnings.

He was speaking at the 110th Executive Council meeting of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) on Monday (June 17) at the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Azerbaijan.  The three-day Executive Council meeting is taking place from June 16 – 18, 2019.

With revenues from international tourism totalling US$1.7 trillion in 2018 and one in 11 of the world’s jobs generated by tourism, Minister Bartlett said, “It begs the question of the distribution of this enormous wealth and the impact that it is having on the highly tourism-dependent regions of the earth.”

He noted a real concern as many of the countries that have the highest level of tourism dependence, like the Caribbean with a GDP dependence of 40% or more and the US Virgin Islands with 98.5% dependence on tourism, are characterized also by high unemployment, a high debt to GDP ratio, social concerns and high levels of income inequality.

He also pointed to statistics which indicate that 80% of global tourism is owned by Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs) but less than 20% of the returns go to them.

“This is hugely disturbing and creates asymmetry and imbalance, and that picture doesn’t look so good,” Minister Bartlett said.

He said the tourism focused discussions at the UNWTO Executive Council meeting, provided “an opportunity for us to take a greater dive into understanding how this great industry of ours must impact the world in a more positive way by creating greater elements of equality, inclusiveness and most of all to build the capacity of tourism-dependent regions to not just recover and grow but to thrive”.

Minister Bartlett took the opportunity to welcome the announcement by the United States of America that it is considering returning to the UNWTO.  The announcement was made earlier in the day by Ms. Emma Doyle, Assistant to US President Donald Trump and Principal Deputy Chief of Staff in the White House.  “The return of the US can only help to make the Americas stronger as a tourist destination,” he noted.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jamaica Ministry of Tourism, Corporate Communications, 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, Tel: 920-4926-30, Fax: 920-4944

Tourism Ethiopia joins African Tourism Board

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Today Tourism Ethiopia joined the African Tourism Board as an observer.

Tourism Ethiopia (TE) is a national organization under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism;

The mission Tourism Ethiopia has is to transform tourism of the country in general by developing tourism products to world standards and marketing them to the global market.

In charge of the new cooperation with ATB is Musa Kedir, the  Tourism Destination Development Senior Officer

Ethiopia is one of Africa’s most beautiful countries and its landscapes are epic in both scale and beauty. Here is a place where you can trek more than 3000m above sea level (the Simien and Bale mountains) or visit the lowest place on the African continent, the Danakil Depression. In between, there are lush highlands and stirring deserts, vertiginous canyons and sweeping savannah, vast lakes and high plateaus. If you look hard enough, you’ll also find landmarks of great significance, from the source of the Blue Nile to, again, the mesmerizingly desolate Danakil Depression, peppered with an astonishing 25% of Africa’s active volcanoes.

Ethiopia, the only African country to have escaped European colonialism, has retained much of its cultural identity and its story is one of Africa’s most fascinating. It all begins with Lucy, one of our most celebrated ancient ancestors, moves effortlessly into the realm of ancient Aksum with its obelisks and echoes of the Queen of Sheba, and then takes on power and passion as Christianity, with mysterious echoes of Ancient Israel, takes center stage. And unlike so many other places in Africa, the ancients here left behind some extraordinary monuments to faith and power which serve as focal points for so many wonderful journeys.

When it comes to human cultures, Ethiopia has an embarrassment of riches. There are the Surmi, Afar, Mursi, Karo, Hamer, Nuer and Anuak, whose ancient customs and traditions have remained almost entirely intact. Venturing into these communities and staying among them is akin to receiving a privileged initiation into a forgotten world. A highlight of any trip here is witnessing one of the many festivals that are an integral part of the traditional culture, from age-old ceremonies marking rites of passage to Christian celebrations of singular passion, the impact upon those who witness such events can provide travel memories to last a lifetime.The government in Ethiopia decided in 2013 that tourism could generate jobs, income and wealth just like any other economic sector. A tourism transformation council was established to provide direction to the industry and the ETO was created to handle marketing, promotion and product development. The tourism push coincided with a massive upsurge in foreign investment from China, India, Turkey and other nations that boosted GDP to annual growth rates of around 10%. With the Ethiopian economy going like gangbusters, tourism is slowly but surely moving toward the great expectations generated more than half a century ago. Several members of the private industry from Ethiopia already joined African Tourism Board. 

CEO Doris Woerfel said: “We’re excited to work with Tourism Ethiopia in making Africa one tourism destination. Ethiopia brings so many new opportunities to promote tourism to Africa.”Founded in 2018, the African Tourism Board is an association that is internationally acclaimed for acting as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism to, from, and within the African region. For more information and how to join, visit africantourismboard.com. 

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Reimagining Tourism through Human Capital Development

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“Reimagining Tourism through Human Capital Development” written by Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett.

Around the world today tourism processes, tools, structures, systems and actors are being radically reviewed, reorganized and remade. In other words, tourism is being reimagined. What this means is destinations across the globe must find innovative methods to remain relevant and viable in this increasingly competitive industry.

Here in Jamaica, through strategic policy programmes and initiatives, we have been playing our part in this reimagining exercise in a bid to thrive in this space. Arrivals and earnings continue to hit records with 1.7million visitors (stopover and cruise combined) coming to our shores and spending USD1.2billion within the first four months of 2019; and the sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP now stands at 9%. Despite our continued successes we have never been complacent and seek to improve on this record growth.

A major component in the reimagining process is our human capital development strategy. This is a critical area to develop as our people remain our most iconic attraction. They represent the driving force behind our continued success and we recognize that to remain top of mind in the market and maintain our competitive advantage we must build our human capital by training and certifying them so as to increase their stackable credentials. This is why we have run the gamut from High School, through Tourism Sector workers and now into the realm of Graduate studies.

Hospitality and Tourism Management Programme

Last year we launched the first ever Hospitality and Tourism Management Programme (HTMP) in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information. The HTMP is a unique certification programme for high schools offered by the American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI), which will allow students to gain entry-level qualifications in tourism as well as Associate Degrees in Customer Service and is recognized by the Jamaica Customer Service Association (JaCSA). This is a two year program currently offered in 33 High Schools across Jamaica with a cohort of 350 students now and will be expanded to 650 students by 2020.

Jamaica Centre of Tourism Innovation

The Jamaica Centre of Tourism Innovation (JCTI), was launched in 2017 as a pathway to professional certification in the sector. Its mandate is to identify competent workers in the industry who are not certified and also graduates from tertiary institutions who have theoretical knowledge but no practical experience. This programme will allow the workers of the sector to achieve mobility in the workspace while being effectively positioned to command professional advancement.

The JCTI, which was established with local and international organizations, is also on target to train 8,000 tourism workers over the next five years.

In April of last year, over 150 persons graduated from the JCTI with American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI) and NVQJ Certification. While in November, over 300 persons received certification in tourism related fields including: 14 Certified Hospitality Educators; 9 Certified Hospitality Instructors; 17 Culinary Tutors; 12 Culinarians and Pastry Chefs; 20 Bartender Trainers and over 200 Bartenders.

In addition, we have established a program to certify workers in the entertainment sub-sector of our Hotels with 26 workers already achieving certification from the inaugural Tourism Linkages Network’s DJ Capacity Enhancement Training Program.

Graduate School of Tourism

With the changing technologies and modalities in the global tourism industry, the focus of talent development must extend beyond traditional areas and now consider the emerging skill requirements of an increasingly differentiated and segmented tourism sector. We recognize that even though tourism is a highly labor-intensive sector, the majority of the tourism-related jobs available are deemed to require low to medium-level technical skills and tend to offer relatively limited prospect for economic mobility. Consequently, the sector may not be viewed as attractive by a large number of people seeking high-skilled jobs.

The future of tourism lies in the manipulation and exploitation of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) capabilities such as big data, big data analytics, blockchain technologies, the Internet of Things, robotics, etc. We therefore need to urgently capitalize on the opportunities for high-skilled employment that are being generated in the ICT-related fields in tourism.

Within this context, we continue to identify the relevant skillsets needed to fill jobs in the evolving tourism sector with the anticipation that these skillsets will be translated into curricula that can be implemented as professional higher education programmes by tertiary institutions in Jamaica.

This is why I recently made a pitch at a function at the University of the West Indies for the institution to establish a School of Tourism. It will specialize in emerging areas, such as resilience-related studies, climate management, project management, tourism management, tourism risk management, tourism crisis management, communication management, tourism marketing and branding, monitoring and evaluation, sustainable tourism policies and tourism entrepreneurship. The University of the West Indies (UWI) should have its first-ever Graduate School of Tourism established at its Western Jamaica Campus by 2020.

Conclusion

We are doing this level of human capital development to not only reimagine the sector but influence the labour market arrangements, by professionalizing the sector and creating a cadre of workers that are qualified, certified and can be classified. Tourism workers will now be able to attract remuneration based on their certification and this is the surest way of securing tenure.

Building the capacity of our workers to be more innovative in this global industry is indeed the future of tourism. As we anticipate even further growth with more hotel rooms and more visitors, our workers will be the driving force in meeting these increased demands.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jamaica Ministry of Tourism, Corporate Communications, 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, Tel: 920-4926-30, Fax: 920-4944

Diversify and digitize to attract younger Muslim travelers, GCC destinations told at ATM 2019

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Gulf hospitality operators looking to increase their share of the growing halal tourism market should diversify and digitize their offerings to suit younger generations of Muslim travelers, according to experts speaking at Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2019.

With the GDP impact of Muslim travel in the Middle East on course to hit USD 36 billion by 2020 – up from USD 30.5 billion in 2017, according to Salam Standard – halal tourism represents a lucrative prospect for GCC hospitality brands. The segment is expected to create 1.2 million regional direct and indirect jobs by next year.

Representatives from Wego, DinarStandard, Shaza Hotels, Tripfez, Serendipity Tailormade, Mosafer C by Ummah Collaboration, holidayme, Orange County Visitors Association, Cape Town Tourism and Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) explored ways to tap into the growing segment of Gen Z and millennial travellers at the Global Halal Tourism Summit 2019, which took place on ATM’s Global Stage.

Mamoun Hmedan, Managing Director – MENA and India, Wego, said: “There are new destinations popping up out of nowhere. Developers are building properties from scratch, with halal-friendly offerings that are designed to appeal to younger generations of Muslim travelers.

“Wego does a lot of work on social media and collaborates with tourism boards to educate people about the opportunities available to them when they travel. We make sure we always have options for our customers to look for properties near to mosques or attractions that may be of interest to Muslim travelers.”

Approximately 41 percent of Muslim travelers’ global outbound spending comes from the UAE and Saudi Arabia, according to figures released by Salam Standard. The Middle East’s total outbound spend is projected to grow to USD 72 billion by 2020.

In addition to emerging trends such as eco, ethical, all-female, experiential, gastro and adventure tourism, panelists also discussed digitization and success stories from ‘non-Muslim’ destinations such as Orange County, Cape Town and Japan.

Chris Nader, Vice President, Shaza Hotels, said: “Gen Z and millennial travelers are setting the trends in halal tourism. The biggest challenge for us involves the resort side of the market – providing the privacy and facilities that Muslim guests need while delivering the entertainment they are looking for. It can be a challenge to create that mix.

“Whenever we create a resort, we have to develop something that is culturally relevant to the location. Travelers are no longer looking for ‘just a hotel’; they want to know what we can offer in terms of experiences. So, Muslim travelers don’t necessarily need to see halal branding but they do need to know that halal services are available.”

Industry-wide investment in halal tourism-related travel technology currently stands at approximately USD 40 million, according to research conducted by DinarStandard. Panelists agreed that this figure is likely to grow further in the future, as younger Muslim travelers continue to drive innovation in online services.

Faeez Fadhlillah, CEO, Tripfez, said: “If you look at the distribution of millennials globally, many of them are living in Muslim-majority countries. In the next 10 years, the youth in this region are going to play a significant role in driving tourism trends. That’s why online travel agencies are so interested in meeting demand from Muslim travelers. Companies are doing everything they can to capture this market.”

Running until Wednesday, 1 May, ATM 2019 will see more than 2,500 exhibitors showcase their products and services at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC). Viewed by industry professionals as a barometer for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) tourism sector, last year’s edition of ATM welcomed 39,000 people, representing the largest exhibition in the history of the show.

For more information about ATM 2019, visit https://arabiantravelmarket.wtm.com.

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