A Huge Leap for Policy Research - Bartlett

KINGSTON, Jamaica; July 16, 2021: Minister of Tourism and Co-Chair of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC), Hon. Edmund Bartlett, and Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife, and Chairman of the GTRCMC – Eastern Africa, Hon. Najib Balala today (July 16) signed a ground-breaking memorandum of understanding (MOU) that will pave the way for the two Centres to work together to develop policy and conduct relevant research on destination preparedness, management and recovery.

The signing took place during the Tourism Recovery Summit for African Ministers of Tourism currently underway in Nairobi, Kenya, where Minister Bartlett was invited to speak in his capacity as a well-respected global thought leader on tourism resilience and recovery.

Minister Bartlett lauded the MOU signing, as “a huge leap for policy research.  It will allow these two Centres to collaborate in forecasting, mitigating and managing risks related to tourism resilience caused by various disruptive factors.  This is truly an exciting opportunity.”  The GTRCMC – East Africa at Kenyatta University, is a regional satellite centre of the international GTRCMC, located at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Jamaica. 

“This is particularly relevant as we navigate and respond to the challenges brought on by the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic. We must be at the forefront of coordinating responses, surveillance and monitoring, and organizing economic relief efforts within and across borders. Collaborations such as this are both critical and timely,” the Minister said.

Following the MOU signing, Hon. Najib Balala presented a cheque for Ksh 10 million (US$ 100,000) to Minister Bartlett to support activities at the East Africa Centre.

The MOU will facilitate a strategic partnership as it relates to Research and Development; Policy Advocacy and Communication Management; Programme/Project Design and Management and Training and Capacity Building, specific to climate change and disaster management; security and cyber-security management; entrepreneurial management; and pandemic and epidemic management. 

This will be done through programmes or undertakings such as:

·         Joint research activities

·         Joint teaching or supervision of students

·         Staging of joint seminars, conferences, workshops, training initiatives and academic meetings

·         Short/long-term student exchange or study abroad activities

·         Exchange of academic materials and other information

·         Collaborative academic programmes

·         Joint collaborative Grant Proposals

·         Collaboration in distance education

·         Other mutually beneficial endeavours.

The stage was set for the MOU signing in 2019 during the state visit of the President of Kenya, His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta, where discussions were held between representatives of UWI, Jamaica’s Ministry of Tourism, the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre and Kenya’s Ministry of Tourism & Wildlife (Kenya) to explore establishing the GTRCMC – East Africa at Kenyatta University.

Minister Bartlett also toured Kenyatta University and the GTRCMC – East Africa where he was hosted by the Vice Chancellor of Kenyatta University, Professor Paul Wainaina.

Jamaica to Continue Investment Talks with Saudi Arabia

KINGSTON, Jamaica; July 13, 2021:  Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett departed the island today (July 13) to participate in the highly anticipated Tourism Recovery Summit for African Ministers of Tourism, which will be held in Nairobi, Kenya, on Friday, July 16, 2021. Minister Bartlett has been invited to speak at the summit in his capacity as a well-respected global thought leader on tourism resilience and recovery.

While in Kenya, Minister Bartlett will continue investment talks with His Excellency Ahmed Al Khateeb, Minister of Tourism for Saudi Arabia, which officially began in June when Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator the Hon. Aubyn Hill, hosted the first Jamaica-Saudi Arabia bilateral conference focused on inward investments to foster economic growth and the creation of new local jobs.

At that time, Minister Al Khateeb led a high-level delegation during his recent visit to Jamaica, including, Mr. Abdurahman Bakir, Vice President for Investment Attraction and Development in the Ministry of Investment in Saudi Arabia, and Mr. Hammad Al-Balawi, General Manager for Investment Management and Oversight in the Saudi Ministry of Tourism.

At the June 24 meeting, Minister Hill expressed the government’s commitment to strengthening the Jamaica-Saudi Arabia relationship. While Minister Al Khateeb, who is chairman of the powerful multi-billion US dollar Saudi Fund for Development, expressed a vision of catalysing the expansion of Saudi Arabian business operations in the Americas, especially throughout the Caribbean and Latin American region.

“The high-level summit follows on the heels of the Tourism Recovery Summit held in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia in May of this year. It will focus on the new era that the tourism sector is now entering and will explore ways to rebuild the African tourism sector that has been impacted negatively by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Minister Bartlett explained. 

“The summit will also explore the opportunity for stronger partnerships between African countries and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to mitigate the pandemic’s effects and boost resilience,” he added.

Minister Bartlett is also slated to attend a special meeting with the President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta and other Ministers, which will culminate in the signing of a MOU between the Jamaican based Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) and its satellite centre in Nairobi. President Kenyatta serves as the honorary co-chair (representing Africa) of the GTRCMC along with Prime Minister the Most Hon. Andrew Holness and Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, former president of Malta.

Minister Bartlett has also been invited to tour Kenyatta University and the GTRCMC - East Africa, in Nairobi on July 15, where he will be hosted by the Vice Chancellor of Kenyatta University, Professor Paul Wainaina.

Minister Bartlett will return to the island on July 19, 2021.

KINGSTON, Jamaica; July 09, 2021: Minister of Tourism and Chair of the high-level Organization of American States (OAS) Working Group, Edmund Bartlett, is calling for continued exchange between Member States and industry to finalize a practical and dynamic recovery action plan, for the cruise and airline industries in the post-pandemic era. 

These remarks were made yesterday (July 8), during a virtual meeting of the Inter-American Committee on Tourism (CITUR) Working Group, organized by the OAS.

“My call today is for the continued exchange between Member States and industry – we must hear all voices. I further urge an investigative approach to the proposed recommendations and tools for our region juxtaposed against similar tools and recommendations in other regions and the implications on interregional travel which is the mainstay of our tourism revenue,” said Minister Bartlett.

“A practical and dynamic recovery action plan requires a multi-dimensional approach to the various elements of recovery – harmonization of protocols, including bio-sanitary and entry protocols; sustainable tourism with consideration for the environment; successful public-private partnerships; increased investments and destination assurance. Such an approach should facilitate and promote a comprehensive, holistic, far-reaching, and effective plan to move us towards our goals,” he added.

Minister Bartlett is urging members to incorporate a practical and dynamic recovery action plan which uses a multi-dimensional approach to the various elements of recovery. This should focus on the harmonization of protocols, including bio-sanitary and entry protocols; sustainable tourism with consideration for the environment; successful public-private partnerships; increased investments and destination assurance.

“Such an approach should facilitate and promote a comprehensive, holistic, far-reaching and effective plan to move us towards our goals,” he said.

During the meeting, Jamaica participated by offering an update on the work being done by the Working Group. So far, the Group has decided on its Terms of Reference and guidelines, with the decision to engage a consultant to consider the rapidly evolving situation with the pandemic and devise recommended strategies to aid Member States and industry players on the road to recovery.

They also highlighted challenges faced in the recovery of the cruise and airline industries, such as the new and more contagious variants emerging that confound ongoing efforts regarding the original and earlier strains; as well as struggles faced by some tourism-dependent economies that depend heavily on vaccine penetration as well as border normalization in source countries.

‘As we have stressed vaccine equity in this forum, we can appreciate the implications for a country like Jamaica with only approximately 9% of its population vaccinated (249,983 vaccinations as of 2 July). If Caribbean vaccination programmes lag, then travellers may avoid these destinations until a critical threshold of these populations are vaccinated,” said Minister Bartlett.

“This ties in the promotion of domestic tourism which has been an emerging feature and tool to offset the losses for international arrivals. Whereas we are aware that some of our domestic tourism markets can hardly compete with international tourist arrivals, we must consider that our source markets are also considering domestic tourism/travel close to home models which have implications for our region’s short and long-term recovery prospects,” he added.

Minister Bartlett also asked all representatives in the meeting to observe a moment of silence for the late Haitian President, His Excellency Jovenel Moïse, following his tragic passing.

The working group is one of four, which were announced during the second special session of the Organization of American States (OAS) Inter-American Committee on Tourism (CITUR) held on August 14, 2020, to facilitate the effective and timely recovery of the travel and tourism sectors.

The first meeting of the Bartlett-Chaired group took place on December 10, 2020, with representatives from various international bodies and countries in the region, including Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Peru and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The Group has also seen active participation from the industry players with updates from IATA, CLIA, ACI World, UNWTO and the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre.

The Organization of American States is the premier regional forum for political discussion, policy analysis and decision-making in Western Hemisphere affairs. It dates back to the First International Conference of American States, held in Washington, D.C., from October 1889 to April 1890.

The Working Group will take a recess during the month of August to resume with its ninth meeting on September 9, 2021.

KINGSTON, Jamaica; July 6, 2021: Last night’s (July 5) inaugural direct flight between the Swiss financial city, Zurich and Montego Bay, marks the introduction of a crucial airlift arrangement that has been hailed as a game-changer for Jamaica’s recovering tourism industry.

Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett declared the service “a game-changer in terms of boosting connectivity out of that section of Europe,” after welcoming Captain Patrick Ritter and crew of the Edelweiss Airline flight, which brought 99 passengers on its inaugural run. Underscoring its significance, the Minister said: “Now we’re seeing that the demand for Jamaica is more concentrated and that individual countries have the capacity to drive numbers sufficient to bring an aircraft non-stop into Montego Bay.”

The occasion was commemorated, with Minister Bartlett presenting gifts to Capt. Ritter who is renewing his acquaintance with Montego Bay. With memories of being here 15 years ago and having had a good time, for him returning is a “great pleasure.”

Zurich is one of the richest cities in Europe and Mr. Bartlett sees the interest in coming to Jamaica as “a big statement that Jamaica is not just seen as a vacation centre for the economy class but also for the well-heeled and the high net-worth demographic.” This he said was important as it generates more confidence in building back at a higher level “so that the resources that are to stay in Jamaica to help us to build the economy is assured.”

In welcoming the service, Director of Tourism, Donovan White said the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) has been working consistently to attract visitors, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. “We work very hard for the demand that we have created and we have spared no effort in the marketplace to ensure that Jamaica is positioned as one of the best destinations available to travellers who are ready to travel,” he expressed.

Mr. White said following the start of the pandemic last year, “Jamaica and the Tourist Board created more comment on the destination than we have ever created at any other time in our history and we did that deliberately because we needed to make sure that as we traverse the pandemic and come out of it, that we were in a position to present Jamaica in a way that would continue to drive that demand forward.”

Edelweiss is recognized as the leading Swiss leisure travel airline, with flights from Zurich to over 70 destinations.

Meanwhile, the Sangster International Airport is again buzzing with activity with the addition of several new flights into Jamaica.

Chief Executive Officer of MBJ Airports Ltd., Shane Munroe says tourism recovery is underway with operations at the airport moving from 30 percent in January to over 70 percent at the end of June, when compared to 2019 and “for the summer the prospect looks good mostly from the United States.” He added that some 80 percent of the airport’s workforce is back on the job.

He said June was a strong month with over 200,000 passengers arriving at the airport and a greater number is expected for July and August, the peak summer months, “and the outlook for the winter season is positive. Right now we don’t have the European flight coming in so when you add the flights from TUI, flights from Canada which are slowly coming back, the UK as well, certainly the recovery is well on its way.”

KINGSTON, Jamaica; July 5, 2021: Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett has underscored that the addition of new flights into the island out of key markets is crucial to the tourism recovery effort, as Jamaica welcomed flights out of the Canadian and European travel markets yesterday.

In just 4 hours on Sunday (July 4), Jamaica witnessed the return of Air Canada from the Canadian market and Condor from Frankfurt, Germany with a Swiss flight out of Zurich, operated by Edelweiss Air, scheduled for Monday evening, all landing at the Sangster International Airport. Minister Bartlett welcomed their arrival which he said was “very important to the tourism recovery effort” following the global shut down of international air travel due to COVID-19.

Air Canada is back after six months with a weekly flight using its Dreamliner aircraft and a plan to go daily soon, while Condor’s rotation is twice weekly until September and the Zurich flight is a first for direct flights between the two cities.

The Minister said these points underscored “that Jamaica’s management of the pandemic and indeed the quality of the product that we have maintained and the connectivity that we have preserved during this interim period, have done us well” and recovery was taking place even faster than had been anticipated.

Minister Bartlett pointed out that in the last three months weekend arrivals have been significant with an average of 15,000 visitors over a three-day period, and with new flights coming in the numbers will increase significantly with the projection for the year now at approximately 1.8 million.

This, he added, meant that jobs and revenue flow were coming back at a faster rate than anticipated. “We’re excited at the prospect therefore of continued growth and I reiterate that the continued development of the industry, the growth of our economy and the resumption of jobs is a function of the responsibility of all of us and we must continue to observe protocols, uphold the principles of good management of the entire area, including the Resilient Corridors which have proven to be one of the powerful marketing tools for Jamaica.”

The Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) has played a major role in marketing the flights and JTB’s Regional Director for Canada, Angella Bennett said: “There’s been a surge in bookings coming into Jamaica from Canada since the Government of Canada has lifted the restrictions on international travel.” She said expectations were high for the Canadian market “to perform exceptionally well this winter” and over 280,000 seats had already been secured. The Dreamliner with a 298-seat capacity is the latest carrier in the Air Canada fleet and is being flown to Jamaica for the first time.

Captain Geoff Wall was also excited at returning, admitting the welcome “really make us feel like we’re coming home so it’s good to be back.” He said after COVID-19: “It’s just nice to be able to leave Canada, bring Canadian tourists and locals back to Jamaica to be with their families, enjoy what is normally a sunshiny place and the hospitality as well.”

Arriving on board the Condor flight, JTB’s Regional Director for Continental Europe, Gregory Shervington said the flight was previously set for last year but got pushed back a number of times because of the pandemic. He said Condor represented a solid connection with Germany over the past 20 years “and it is the precursor to more coming, including Monday’s flight out of Zurich and on Wednesday we’ll have Lufthansa with its sister airline Eurowings Discover coming back with three non-stop flights.”

The new flights have been welcomed also by the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) and the office of the mayor of Montego Bay. JHTA’s Chapter Chairman, Nadine Spence was particularly pleased with the return of Air Canada, noting that “Canada is one of our favoured destinations, contributing over 22 percent of all tourism arrivals.” She said the return showed that there was confidence in travelling and that “Jamaica is a loved destination.”

Deputy Mayor, Richard Vernon was also “happy to have these airlines back.” He said: “This means a lot to us; we really benefit immensely from tourism here in Montego Bay and numerous persons have been unemployed since March of last year and because of this we can expect persons to go back to work.”

Resumption of Cruise Dependent on Higher Vaccination Levels of the Population

KINGSTON, Jamaica; July 2, 2021: Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett says based on current projections he expects the full return of the cruise industry in Jamaica between August and October of this year. This he notes is dependent on COVID-19 management and an increased percentage of vaccinated persons across the island.

The Minister made the declaration during JMMB’s ‘Thought Leadership Webinar’ recently, where he was the keynote speaker.

“Our cruise partners are now champing at the bit to come back into Caribbean waters. However, the extent of our own preparedness, from a COVID-19 management point of view, will determine how fast they actually come in. Vaccination is of course the big elephant in the room and for most of us in the region, we are at very low vaccination levels. We need to build that out and to put ourselves in a position to see highly vaccinated people and for them to move around seamlessly,” expressed Bartlett.

The Minister was adamant that based on current forcasts, the island will not see the full return of cruise until late August to October of 2021.

“I think that August to October in that three month window will be when you will see a full resumption of cruise. We may see one or two smaller vessels coming in, perhaps in August. However, my take on the matter is October seems to me the outer month for us to see cruise coming back to the region. If we don’t get it back in that time, we are going to be in trouble,” said the Minister.

The Ministry of Tourism has been actively working for the return of cruise this summer, utilizing a collaborative approach that will bring greater value for passengers, cruise lines and Destination Jamaica. 

Several areas have been examined in discussions with the island’s cruise partners, including more meaningful linkages, homeporting, multiple calls, increased jobs, increased value to local brands and improving the passenger experience, which should translate into higher spend per passenger. 

KINGSTON, Jamaica; June 30, 2021: Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett has announced that the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Jamaica National Small Business Loans Ltd (JNSBL) to make $70 million accessible to operators in the tourism ground transportation sub-sector, who have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Minister Bartlett made the announcement as he provided an update on the recovery of the tourism sector in Parliament yesterday (June 29).

“I am happy to announce that we have finalized plans for our latest relief initiative for tourism workers. The Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) has put in motion an injection of J$70 million to support tourism ground transportation operators who have suffered tremendously from the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic and the massive downturn in tourism over the last year,” Minister Bartlett expressed.

“The loans, become accessible at any JN Branch starting July 1, 2021 and will be offered at zero percent interest rate; with an 8-month moratorium on the principal and a maximum repayment period of three years, with no processing fees,” Minister Bartlett said.

The loan facility was first announced by Minister Bartlett during his Sectoral Debate closing presentation in Parliament on June 15. During his presentation, Mr. Bartlett described the TEF intervention as “The Default Clearance Loan.”

He explained that it can be accessed from JNSBL and will allow borrowers to receive up to a maximum of J$1 million in monthly instalments for up to 12 months.

Minister Bartlett had also outlined that: “It was agreed that the loans will be unsecured, as the challenges surrounding collateralizing the loans will prevent some operators from accessing the facility, especially those who are in the greatest need of this form of aid to remain sustainable.”

In collaboration with JNSBL, the application process has been made easy, and to facilitate even more applicants, the TEF has secured the services of certified accountants to assist the applicants in preparing the Cash Flow Statements that are required as part of the application.

Minister Bartlett outlined that the accountants have facilitated over 40 drivers since Saturday, June 26th, 2021, with others currently being assisted.  

The introduction of the loan facility follows appeals by members of the transportation sub-sector for assistance.

In a recent virtual forum hosted by the Tourism Linkages Network (TLN), on how tourism has impacted other sectors, President of the Jamaica Co-operative Automobile and Limousine Tours (JCAL), Brian Thelwell, underscored the importance of ground transportation to tourism and called for financial support for operators to prepare them for the recovery of the industry. He implored banks in particular, to be more lenient with those having outstanding loans.

“The COVID-19 Relief loan facility will be available to members of JUTA, JCAL and MAXI ground transportation providers who must meet a number of eligibility criteria,” Mr. Bartlett said.

More than 5,000 transport operators in the tourism sector have been impacted negatively by the forced lockdown of the tourism sector last year, due to the pandemic.

KINGSTON, Jamaica; June 25, 2021: Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett has announced that Jamaica and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have agreed to sign a document of intent, to aid in boosting air connectivity between the Middle East and the Caribbean.

The Minister made the announcement following a series of meetings with His Excellency Ahmed Al Khateeb, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Tourism, who is currently in Jamaica for the 66th meeting of the UNWTO Regional Commission for the Americas. The meeting also included several regional Ministers of Tourism who joined the discussions virtually.

“We talked about air connectivity and how to link the Middle East, the Asian market, and the areas within that side of the world to join us through the mega airlines that are in those areas. Particularly the Etihad, the Emirates and Saudi airlines,” said Bartlett.

“The agreement that we have coming out of that is that Minister Al Khateeb will bring to the table, those major partners, while I will be responsible for coordinating with the countries that are cooperating with us in the multi-destination tourism framework, to enable a Hub and Spoke arrangement so that traffic can move from the Middle East and come into our area and have distribution from one country to the next,” he added.

He further explained that the multi-destination arrangement is critical to the development of tourism in the region as it is “a new formula within this area to drive connectivity across the globe, but more so to broaden the market to create the critical mass that is needed to attract larger airlines and the big tour operators to become interested in us and have a stronger movement of tourism within our area.”

Bartlett noted that this arrangement will be a game-changer for the Caribbean as it will allow new markets to have direct connectivity to the region, thus increasing earnings, especially for small and medium tourism enterprises.

“For us this is a game-changer in the making, because small countries like Jamaica will never have the capacity to have large airlines like Qatar and Emirates coming to us from direct flights. However, we can benefit from these airlines coming into the Caribbean space – landing here in Jamaica but having distribution to other countries in the Caribbean,” he explained.

Dialogue about this arrangement is expected to continue over the next few days, with the hopes of a memorandum of understanding being finalised.

Minister Al Khateeb, expressed gratitude for being invited to Jamaica to participate in discussions that will aid in strengthening connectivity between the Middle East and the Caribbean.

“We discussed with my colleagues, very critical topics and we are in support of creating bridges between the Middle East and the Caribbean. I thank Minister Bartlett for this opportunity and look forward to expanding the corporation for expanding the Middle East and the Caribbean,” said Al Khateeb.

During the meeting, they also discussed other areas of possible collaboration, including human capital development, community tourism and building resilience within the region.

“One of the key areas that we discussed was the development of resilience and crisis management, as well as sustainability as critical pillars on which the recovery of tourism must be predicated. But more so, the importance of building capacity within countries that have tourism as the driver of their economies - countries that are weakly resourced and vulnerable to disruptions. We are going to see collaboration in the building out of the resilience centre here in Jamaica and the resilience centre that is in Saudi Arabia,” said Bartlett.

Minister Al Khateeb shared similar sentiments regarding the importance of building resilience and sustainability, to the future of the industry.

“We all know that tourism represents 10% of the global GDP before the crisis and 10% of global jobs.  Unfortunately, the industry was hit hard by the pandemic, and we lost a lot in 2020 and now with the vaccine and the opening of many countries borders, we started the discussion about how the world will look in the future and started planning for post-COVID and learning from the challenges,” he said.

“So, sustainability is a very important topic. We want to create more resilience in the future and a more sustainable industry – one that respects the environment and culture,” added Al Khateeb.

KINGSTON, Jamaica; June 24, 2021: 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^th).

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 travelled 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.

Minister Bartlett highlighted that “international tourism receipts in 2020 declined by 64% 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% 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% 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.

Tourism Ministry Projects US$1.93 Billion in Earnings from 1.61 million visitors in 2021

KINGSTON, Jamaica; June 22, 2021:  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 emphasised 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.