News Releases

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.”