Jamaica Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, is calling on global and regional tourism stakeholders to redouble their efforts to facilitate the speedy recovery of the international tourism industry and by extension the global economy.

Minister Bartlett made the call as he chaired the blended staging of the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) 66th Regional Commission of the Americas (CAM), today (June 24).

Minister of Tourism for Saudi Arabia, His Excellency Ahmed Al Khateeb, and Minister of Tourism and International Transport for Barbados, Senator, the Hon. Lisa Cummins, are among the global tourism leaders who have traveled to Jamaica to attend the CAM meeting. Senator Cummins also chairs the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO). The tourism officials also participated in the Ministerial Dialogue on the reactivation of the tourism sector for inclusive growth.

Jamaica Tourism Minister Bartlett highlighted that “international tourism receipts in 2020 declined by 64 percent in real terms, equivalent to a drop of over US$900 billion, while the total loss in export revenues from international tourism amount to nearly US$1.1 trillion.”

He added that “the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism sector in the Americas saw a 68 percent decrease in international tourist arrivals in 2020, recording 70 million down from the 219 million recorded in 2019.” He lamented that according to the UNWTO’s ninth report on travel restrictions, 10 destinations in the Americas, or 20 percent of all destinations in the region, had completely closed their borders as of February 1, 2021, with a downward trend in air traffic. 

While hoping for more positive trends moving forward Mr. Bartlett stressed that “the call now, is to redouble our efforts to work together in practical and meaningful ways for a return to the successful days of travel and tourism.” He said, “I hope that one outcome of this meeting, including the Ministerial Dialogue, will be not only a reiteration of our commitment and political will but at least one concrete step that the region can take together to reactivate tourism.”

Secretary-General of the UNWTO, Mr. Zurab Pololikashvili, in underscoring the need to expedite the recovery of the tourism sector said “we can’t leave anyone behind in this process… Time is crucial, many families especially in the Caribbean do not have another way out of this. It is the main source of income for them and many people and many kids and many families are depending on this income.” 

Minister Al Khateeb underscored the need for greater collaboration in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. “This is a global problem, and the solution has to come from everybody and therefore we have to collaborate and we have to work together,” he expressed. He also called for clear and unified protocols to facilitate the rebound of the tourism sector.

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Media contact:

Corporate Communications Division

Ministry of Tourism

64 Knutsford Boulevard

Kingston 5

Telephone: 920-4924,

Fax: 906-1729

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

Jamaica Tourism Minister Hon. Edmund Bartlett has revealed that since its reopening in June 2020, the tourism sector has been driving the economic recovery of Jamaica’s economy, through a steady increase in arrivals and tourism earnings.  

Minister Bartlett expressed that “preliminary figures indicate that since the reopening of the tourism sector on June 15, 2020, Jamaica has recorded a total of 816,632 stopover visitors and generated earnings of approximately US$1.31 billon (J$196 billion), over the one-year period.” 

“The earnings from the sector included US$1.2 billion in visitor expenditure; US$28 million in departure taxes; US$19.5 million in passenger fees and charges; US$16.3 million in airline passenger levy; US$8.5 million in hotel room taxes and US$8.1 million in airport improvement fees,” he explained.  

He emphasized that this is further proof that the tourism sector is on a steady path to recovery. Minister Bartlett adds that “for the current calendar year, the Tourism Ministry is reforecasting to deliver 1.61 million visitors against an earlier estimate of 1.15 million, an improvement of 460,000 more visitors.”  

“Tourism recovery is on the horizon. Our tourism sector is rising like a phoenix from the ashes. This more positive outlook for 2021 will also improve the destination’s estimate of earnings from US$1.6 billion to US$1.93 billion, an improvement of US$330 million,” said Bartlett.  

The Minister credits this improvement, in part, to the development of robust health and safety protocols for the sector as well as the establishment of the Tourism COVID-19 Resilient Corridors, which have seen a very low infection rate of 0.6%.  

He also noted that the measures enabled Jamaica to welcome some 342,948 tourists during the first five months of this year (January to May).  

He indicated that estimated earnings, for the period January 2021 to the end of May 2021 is US$514.9 million or roughly J$77 billion. 

“May 2021 showed a remarkable increase in visitor arrivals and overall stopover arrivals, increasing steadily from mid-month consistently to the end of the month. Load factors recorded for May 2021 averaged 73.5%, this is against the forecasted 50% average load factor for 2021, 9.3% less than the 83.1% load factor achieved in May 2019,” he explained. 

The Ministry remains cautiously optimistic of cruise passengers starting to return around July/August. The first cruise out of North America to the Caribbean took place very recently and that has heightened expectations of more setting sail soon.  

More news about Jamaica

#rebuildingtravel

MEDIA CONTACT:

Corporate Communications Division 

Ministry of Tourism 

64 Knutsford Boulevard 

Kingston 5 

Telephone: 920-4924, 

Fax: 906-019 

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 

Jamaica Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett (seen left in the photo) expresses sincere appreciation to St. James Public Health Department staff and other healthcare workers for their commitment in going the extra mile to vaccinate the public against the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Minister Bartlett lauded the workers as he visited the vaccination blitz site at the Montego Bay Convention Centre on Saturday, June 19, 2021. He underscored that healthcare workers have a crucial role to play in enabling the quick recovery, not just of the tourism sector, but of the Jamaican economy overall.   

The Jamaica Ministry of Tourism and its agencies are on a mission to enhance and transform Jamaica’s tourism product, while ensuring that the benefits which flow from the tourism sector are increased for all Jamaicans. To this end it has implemented policies and strategies that will provide further momentum for tourism as the engine of growth for the Jamaican economy. The Ministry remains committed to ensuring that the tourism sector makes the fullest contribution possible to Jamaica’s economic development given its tremendous earning potential.

At the Ministry, they are leading the charge to strengthen the linkages between tourism and other sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and entertainment, and in so doing encourage every Jamaican to play their part in improving the country’s tourism product, sustaining investment, and modernizing and diversifying the sector to foster growth and job creation for fellow Jamaicans. The Ministry sees this as critical to Jamaica’s survival and success and has undertaken this process through an inclusive approach, which is driven by the Resort Boards, through wide-scale consultation.

Recognizing that a collaborative effort and a committed partnership between the public and private sectors will be needed to achieve set targets, central to the Ministry’s plans is maintaining and nurturing its relationship with all key stakeholders. In so doing, it is believed that with the Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development as a guide and the National Development Plan – Vision 2030 as a benchmark – the Ministry’s goals are achievable for the benefit of all Jamaicans.

More news about Jamaica

Media contact:  

Corporate Communications Division 

Ministry of Tourism  

64 Knutsford Boulevard 

Kingston 5 

Telephone: 920-4924 

Fax: 920-4944 

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 

Preparations are in high gear to enable Jamaican producers to better meet the demands of a revived tourism industry. To this end, the Ministry of Tourism is working in tandem with the Ministry of Agriculture & Fisheries and has initiated a series of high-level meetings to finalize the requisite arrangements. 

Two crucial meetings were held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre on the weekend with representatives from the agricultural sector: One meeting involving the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), to discuss the supply chain for meat and meat cuts, and agricultural produce, and the other with the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association, exploring supply chain issues. 

Minister of Tourism Hon. Edmund Bartlett said the highly-anticipated consultations were being undertaken in order to address issues relating to the supply side of the sector. He noted that the discussions were: “In the vein of reimagining tourism in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and to drive the new production and consumption patterns that we require to enable more local Jamaicans to be connected to the tourism value chain.” This is aimed at ensuring that a larger percentage of the tourism dollar stays in Jamaica and more jobs created. 

The meetings, spearheaded by Minister Bartlett and Minister of Agriculture & Fisheries, Hon. Floyd Green, were welcomed as they facilitated dialogue with purveyors of goods that are sold to tourism players, followed by a discussion with the hoteliers. “The first element of this arrangement is to have a sense of what the demand is by hearing from the hotels then to hear from the agricultural producers what it is that they can supply,” Mr. Bartlett disclosed. 

“The picture emerging from this consultation is that the tourism industry is saying we are ready to start buying local in a fulsome way; what we want is for the local capacity to be developed to ensure the consistency of supply, the quantity and quality and that the price is good,” said Minister Bartlett. He highlighted that “those four factors will influence greatly a higher degree of purchasing from our local providers” and the discussion will continue towards assuring suppliers and purchasers of consistency on both sides. 

Chairman of the Tourism Linkages Council, Adam Stewart and Chairman of the Agricultural Sub-Committee, Wayne Cummings will meet with agricultural stakeholders in the next two weeks to fine tune the demand requirements and supply capabilities.  

Additionally, Mr. Bartlett said discussions had been initiated with the banking sector to be a part of the drive to facilitate the full recovery of the tourism industry.  

He expressed confidence that tourism was showing signs of recovery “and this is why we’re moving so fast to bring the partners together because the pandemic brought tourism literally to a halt and what it meant is that we were all at point zero, and this is a good time to bring the partners together so that we build back together.”   

Minister Bartlett underscored that all parties growing together would augur well for the industry and that all Jamaicans stand to benefit from a unified approach. 

More news about Jamaica

Media contact:  

Corporate Communications Division 

Ministry of Tourism  

64 Knutsford Boulevard 

Kingston 5 

Telephone: 920-4924,  

Fax: 906-1729 

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 

Jamaica Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, (seen left in the photo) engaged with Mr. Steven Gooden, CEO – NCB Capital Markets Limited, in discussion.

The occasion was the launch of NCB Capital Markets’ Tourism Response Impact Portfolio (TRIP) at the AC Marriott Hotel on June 17, 2021. Minister Bartlett was the Keynote Speaker at the event, where he lauded NCB for the launch of their initiative and also encouraged more financial entities to create unique financial offerings to assist players in the tourism industry. 

The Jamaica Ministry of Tourism and its agencies are on a mission to enhance and transform Jamaica’s tourism product, while ensuring that the benefits which flow from the tourism sector are increased for all Jamaicans. To this end it has implemented policies and strategies that will provide further momentum for tourism as the engine of growth for the Jamaican economy. The Ministry remains committed to ensuring that the tourism sector makes the fullest contribution possible to Jamaica’s economic development given its tremendous earning potential.

At the Ministry, they are leading the charge to strengthen the linkages between tourism and other sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and entertainment, and in so doing encourage every Jamaican to play their part in improving the country’s tourism product, sustaining investment, and modernizing and diversifying the sector to foster growth and job creation for fellow Jamaicans. The Ministry sees this as critical to Jamaica’s survival and success and has undertaken this process through an inclusive approach, which is driven by the Resort Boards, through wide-scale consultation.

Recognizing that a collaborative effort and a committed partnership between the public and private sectors will be needed to achieve set targets, central to the Ministry’s plans is maintaining and nurturing its relationship with all key stakeholders. In so doing, it is believed that with the Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development as a guide and the National Development Plan – Vision 2030 as a benchmark – the Ministry’s goals are achievable for the benefit of all Jamaicans.

More news about Jamaica

#rebuildingtravel

MEDIA CONTACT:

Corporate Communications Division 

Ministry of Tourism 

64 Knutsford Boulevard 

Kingston 5 

Telephone: 920-4924, 

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