Tourism Minister Rolls Out Strategic Vision for Growing Industry

KINGSTON, Jamaica; Wednesday, June 18, 2025: Having achieved phenomenal success with targets against all odds over the last decade, Jamaica’s tourism industry is being positioned for even greater growth through a strategic vision enunciated by Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett.

Following an extensive review of the performance of Jamaica’s leading industry under his leadership, Minister Bartlett laid out in Parliament: “Fifteen Strategic Pillars for Inclusive Growth,” aimed at ensuring “tourism for all Jamaicans.”

In his 2025/2026 Sectoral Presentation yesterday, Mr. Bartlett presented a framework “for inclusive growth founded on 15 strategic pillars that will guide the work in tourism over the next fiscal year, ensuring that every Jamaican can participate in and benefit from tourism's continued success.”

With a resolve to make every Jamaican a tourism stakeholder through: "Shared Tourism Prosperity," Minister Bartlett said this approach is being taken to ensure more Jamaicans own, work in, and earn from the sector, achieving this “through comprehensive training and business grants, easier access to loans for small businesses, and tourism-linked jobs for people with diverse skills, from farmers to IT experts who can contribute to our industry's growth.”

Underscoring that: “It is clear we have set a course that leaves no community behind,” Minister Bartlett said this objective will also be achieved through an initiative dubbed: “New Frontiers Development” accelerating tourism expansion in untapped areas like St. Thomas, Clarendon, and Manchester, with planned eco-tourism, heritage trails, and luxury boutique resorts creating new jobs and spreading tourism dollars beyond traditional resort areas.

This strategy aligns with Jamaica’s Blue Ocean Strategy, focusing on product differentiation and frontier tourism development.

While pursuing industry expansion, however, Minister Bartlett informed Parliament that emphasis will be placed on: “Climate-Smart and Resilient Tourism Development that will ensure that new tourism investments are climate-resilient and sustainable, safeguarding our beaches, marine ecosystems, and communities for future generations.” The Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) will be expanded to train more workers and guide businesses in climate-smart practices that protect both the environment and economic interests.

At the same time, given the importance of: “Protecting Heritage and Natural Assets,” the ministry’s public bodies will work with communities to restore and preserve cultural and heritage sites while supporting environmental tourism projects that create jobs and safeguard natural treasures for future generations to inherit.

Concurrently, the highly successful Spruce Up Jamaica initiative will be expanded and its funding doubled to assist in creating some of its programmes of beautification, tourism micro-projects, heritage upgrades, and job creation within communities to advance and promote tourism.

Minister Bartlett stressed that tourism extended beyond the borders of the traditional resort areas and that the Spruce Up programme impacted all constituencies across the country through dozens of community beautification projects and temporary job creating opportunities, while also empowering local artisans to contribute to tourism development.