KINGSTON, Jamaica, Monday May 14, 2018: Tourism continues to experience unprecedented growth as the industry plays a lead role in the government’s growth agenda. With three years into a five-year expansion plan set by Tourism Minister, Hon Edmund Bartlett, projections are being exceeded.

Following a record-breaking season in 2017, Minister Bartlett reported to Parliament in his 2018 sectoral presentation recently, that tourism numbers for the first quarter of this year had hit new highs with January to March arrivals of 1,298,674, representing an increase of 6.6 percent over the corresponding period last year.

The 625,002 stopovers and 673, 672 cruise passengers meant the island had over 80,000 more visitors for the period. Gross estimated foreign exchange earnings for the quarter stood at US$825.3million, an increase of 8.5 percent.

“The rapidly expanding tourism sector has maintained its position as one of the main contributors to job creation, investments and foreign revenues in the economy over the last several decades,” said Minister Bartlett in his report, with data indicating that the total economic impact of the sector surpassed most other segments of the economy.

Underscoring the fact that tourism was vital to the fulfilment of the mandate of Vision 2030 – making Jamaica the place to live, work, raise families and do business – Mr. Bartlett outlined that the industry was a major contributor to tax revenues and employment creation.

Pursuing new investments, Mr. Bartlett said over 1,200 rooms were added to the country’s hotel stock in 2017 totalling millions of US dollars. For 2018/2019, an additional 1000 rooms are to be added.

Cruise tourism has also been growing apace, putting Jamaica on a trajectory to becoming the leading cruise destination in the Caribbean. Cruise passenger visits were 11 percent higher than in 2016 and gross earnings from that sub sector was US$179 million, up 19 percent from US$150 million in 2016.

Mr. Bartlett said strong growth was anticipated in 2018 owing to the wide range of cruise development initiatives that have been pursued with partners and stakeholders over the past year.

The Port Authority of Jamaica is overseeing the upgrade of ports to enhance capacity and receive large cruise ships. US$22 million is being spent on Reynolds Pier in Ocho Rios. It is being twinned with rehabilitation of the Ocho Rios Fishing Village at a cost of US$4.5 million to transform it into a modern complex for food, entertainment and vending.

The Falmouth port will be upgraded at a cost of US$3 million to allow two Oasis-class vessels to dock simultaneously. Minister Bartlett said there was a commitment to rehabilitate of the whole town of Falmouth to enhance the readiness of its infrastructure and allow residents to maximize the benefits of an expanded cruise tourism sector. Consequently, US$12.85 million had been earmarked a number of projects and upgrades, among them development of an Artisan Village at Hampden Wharf, renovation of Falmouth market, landscaping of Market Street and improvement of the Falmouth Hospital.

Plans are also being crafted for development of Port Royal to accommodate cruise tourism.

MONTEGO BAY, St. James; May 11, 2018:  Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett has tasked the Tourism Linkages Council to complete the tourism demand study by August this year.

“I have charged the Chairman of the Tourism Linkages Council, Adam Stewart, to complete a demand study that will facilitate quantitative analysis of the need for manufacturing and other goods and services within the sector,” Minister Bartlett said.

The study was designed to identify the existing/ potential demand in the tourism sector for goods and services across local sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and entertainment.

The Minister, who was speaking at the Ministry of Tourism’s Smart Destination Workshop added that, “We will be going a step further to engage buyers, hoteliers and suppliers from all sectors at a summit in September. The aim of this summit will be to critically analyze and discuss the findings from the study with a view to charting the way forward.”

In his recent address to Parliament, Minister Bartlett emphasized the need to plug the leakages by strengthening the linkages between tourism and other sectors.

“My Ministry remains fully committed to changing the production and consumption patterns to facilitate a greater flow of wealth within the sector, especially among our small and medium sized tourism enterprises,” Minister Bartlett added.

There are opportunities for increased linkages with local suppliers to facilitate import substitution in producing various items. The aim of the Ministry of Tourism is to foster more purchasing of local goods and services which will reduce the imports and help to plug the leakages from importation.

KINGSTON, JAMAICA; Wednesday, May 9, 2018: Tourism workers are on the brink of benefitting from housing and pension funded by the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) to the tune of $2 billion. The TEF has also earmarked another $1 billion for the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA).

Emphasising that housing as it related to tourism workers, “is key part of the concern for us in the Ministry,” Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett said a recent survey indicated that “over 88 percent of the workers in the industry cannot even access NHT housing solutions.”

In his Sectoral presentation to Parliament yesterday, Mr. Bartlett announced that “We have put $1 billion, over the next five years, to assist tourism workers to access housing solutions through the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ).”

TEF will make $170.7million available to support implementation of the first phase of the programme in this financial year.

The survey formed the basis of the development of a framework to support housing needs for tourism workers as a component of the Tourism Workers’ Welfare Programme. It also showed that while 94% of the workers contributed to the NHT, 85% did not own a home and would not be able to afford a house costing more than $2.5 million.

The discussion between TEF and the HAJ also included a number of other initiatives, such as developing parcels of land identified for housing for tourism workers and providing basic infrastructure for informal settlements in which a number of tourism workers reside.

Also, while seeking to ensure that workers in tourism have decent work, he said the Ministry of Tourism was also examining labour market arrangements aimed at ending the traditional seasonal arrangement “because the kind of volume that we are bringing in to Jamaica is not about seasonal employment, it’s 24/7 employment.”

Last year the industry brought in 4.3 million visitors and currently provided direct employment 122,500 workers.

In an update on the tourism workers’ pension scheme, Mr. Bartlett informed Parliament that it was on track. “I am pleased to say that the Chief Parliamentary Council (CPC) has now given us the draft so we are ready to come to Parliament with the Bill in the middle of the year and hopefully by October, we will have this revolutionary tourism pension plan for the people of this great industry,” he announced.

 A delay in the implementation of the pension scheme arose when it was determined that the Financial Services Commission (FSC) would have oversight but had no experience in giving oversight to a scheme driven by legislation. The FSC Act had to be amended to enable that happening.

 The pension scheme, which will be a compulsory contributory one, will cover all categories of tourism workers, with each beneficiary entitled to a pension of at least J$200,000 regardless of when they join.

 TEF is seeding the pension scheme with $1 billion over the first four years.

The other $1 billion will be going to the NSWMA to continue to carry its full programme of maintenance to keep the island clean.” Concurrently, ‘Spruce Up’ Jamaica will be spearheading the Ministry’s island wide communication message aimed at bringing awareness to all Jamaicans on the importance of tourism to the country.

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica; Tuesday, May 1, 2018: Faced with the reality of the Caribbean being the most tourism-dependent region on earth, Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett has pointed regional commissioners of police to the need for an integrated approach to ensuring the safety and security of visitors.

Minister Bartlett was one of several speakers at yesterday’s opening ceremony of the 33^rd annual general meeting and conference of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police, being held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre. He reminded them that tourism has been the single, most important and sustainable activity particularly within the Anglophobe Caribbean over the last 50 years.

Currently, the industry accounts for over 40 percent of the GDP of the Caribbean’s economy, employing one-in-five of all workers in the region and last year earning US$30 billion. “What it means then, is that the future of the economic well-being of our region is truly not locked into the traditional mode of production as we have understood it, nor is it tied to the traditional commodities that have characterised our economic community over time,” he said.

In line with the conference theme, “An Integrated Approach towards Serious and Organized Crime: Implications for regional Growth and development,” Mr. Bartlett told police commissioners and other representatives of 13 Caribbean states that “despite its importance and the fact that price was not yet a major factor, tourism was a vulnerable economic activity, susceptible to major disruptions of all types.” And while maintaining that the Caribbean remained a region of peace, he stressed that safety and security had to be seen as top priority as “the elements that are going to distinguish destinations in the future are safety, security and seamlessness.”

At the local level, the Ministry of Tourism, through the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), has committed over J$1 billion to the Ministry of National Security to boost safety and security. Some $201 million has gone into rehabilitating police stations and other buildings, more than $191 million into purchasing motor vehicles and motor bikes to patrol resort areas and $45 million for the acquisition of boat engines and other equipment to support the Marine Resource Upgrading Programme.

Also, $80 million has been provided for the commissioning of CCTV systems and $150 million funded the training of 200 District Constables by the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) to strengthen formal security arrangements in resort communities and tackle visitor harassment.

Also addressing the opening ceremony was Minister of National Security, Dr the Hon Horace Chang; Mayor of Montego Bay, Councillor Homer Davis; President, Association of Caribbean Commissioners,  Mr. Michael A. DeSilva; President, National Organisation of Black Law Enforcement Executives, Mr Clarence Cox and Commissioner of the Jamaica Constabulary Force,  Major General Antony Anderson.

The visitors were treated to the musical talents of the JCF Band, the JCF Choir and cultural items by 6-year-old Rhashaun Rhoden of DRB Grant Basic School and students of Herbert Morrison High School.