News Releases

KINGSTON, Jamaica; Monday, July 27, 2026: Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, will depart the island later today for Toronto, Canada, where he will serve as keynote speaker at the Canadian–Caribbean Tourism Resilience Symposium: Co-Designing the Next Decade, being hosted by George Brown Polytechnic’s Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) from July 29-30, 2026. The symposium will convene senior government officials, international tourism leaders, academics, policymakers and private sector stakeholders from Canada and the Caribbean to examine the future of tourism through the lenses of resilience, innovation, sustainability and strategic partnership. Discussions will focus on strengthening tourism systems, advancing climate resilience, harnessing artificial intelligence and digital transformation, and fostering greater collaboration between the two regions.

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica; Tuesday, July 21, 2026: Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, has signalled a new era of closer collaboration between the Ministry of Tourism, its public bodies and the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), following an inaugural strategic meeting with the Association’s newly elected executive at the Montego Bay Convention Centre on Thursday, July 16. The meeting, held three weeks after O’Brian Heron was elected JHTA president, focused on strengthening public-private sector cooperation as Jamaica advances its Tourism 3.0 agenda and continues recovering from the effects of Hurricane Melissa. Congratulating Mr. Heron on what he described as “a very emphatic victory,” Minister Bartlett reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to maintaining the JHTA as a central partner in tourism governance, noting that the proposed establishment of the Tourism Authority is intended to strengthen, not diminish, the Association’s role.

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica; Friday, July 17, 2026: Community tourism is being positioned to play a leading role in driving Jamaica’s Local First policy direction under the Ministry of Tourism’s new Tourism 3.0 growth strategy but Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett says there has to be a strategic shift from being a country of samples to one of ample. “Tourism is nothing but community; it’s everything we do in the community that creates the experiences that give people the desire to return,” he posited while underscoring that the real wealth of tourism is to be found in meeting the supply needs. “We the people of Jamaica must own and in fact direct the supply side of tourism,” Bartlett asserted, noting that, “It is about us building out communities, so we have to build out our farming districts, our fishing villages, our heritage towns, maroon communities, cultural corridors all across the country.”

Tourism Minister Calls for Caribbean “Co-petition” to Drive Next Era of Tourism Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Thursday, July 2, 2026: “The future of tourism will be defined not by the number of visitors destinations attract, but by the value tourism creates for their people,” Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, declared today as he unveiled Jamaica’s Tourism 3.0 Framework at the Americas Investment Forum 2026. Speaking during the leadership panel on “Building a Regionally Integrated Tourism Strategy,” Minister Bartlett said the global tourism industry is entering a new competitive era where destinations succeed by combining resilience, innovation, skilled people, seamless visitor experiences and strong governance to create sustainable economic value. “Jamaica’s Tourism 3.0 Framework recognises that the future of tourism is not simply about growing visitor arrivals, but about growing the value tourism creates for workers, businesses, communities and the wider economy,” Bartlett said. “The destinations that will lead tomorrow are those that invest not only in hotels, but in people, partnerships, productivity, resilience and trust,” he added.

OCHO RIOS, Jamaica; Wednesday, July 1, 2026: Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett has put the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) on notice that it will be required to play a leading role in driving the new Tourism 3.0 growth agenda across the entire sector. Confident that “ours is a wonderful future ahead” for Jamaica’s tourism, Minister Bartlett told JHTA members at their 65th annual general meeting at Sandals Dunns River recently, that while government is looking at reimagining the tourism product, “the gatekeepers, of which the JHTA is number one, have to reinvent themselves,” adding, “this is your moment to reexamine and to reimagine what you are about and how you are going to move tourism into the next decade.” Having billions of dollars invested in the tourism industry, Minister Bartlett said he wanted to see more of the sector’s investors “being inserted in the leadership and direction of the JHTA.”

Tourism Minister Slated to Tour New Moon Palace Resort in Punta Cana KINGSTON, Jamaica; Tuesday, June 30, 2026: Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, departs the island this afternoon for a high-level working visit to the Dominican Republic, where he will represent Jamaica as a featured panellist at the Americas Investment Forum in Santo Domingo and tour one of the Caribbean’s newest mega-resorts. Minister Bartlett is expected to arrive in Punta Cana later this afternoon, for an on-the-ground inspection of the newly established Moon Palace Hotel, a flagship addition to the Dominican Republic’s accommodation portfolio. The visit will give the tourism minister first-hand insight into the property's design, operations and integration into the wider Punta Cana tourism ecosystem, ahead of his participation in regional investment discussions. The property serves as a model for the Moon Palace The Grand Montego Bay luxury resort, now being built in St. James.