As T&T continues to build its tourism product and craft new and unique avenues to attract international visitors, Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett has shared some advice for this country.
During an in-person interview with Guardian Media at the recently concluded Global Tourism Resilience Conference (GTRC) held from February 15 to 19, 2024 at the Montego Bay Convention Centre (MBCC) Bartlett said, “The first advice is to build your human capacity. It’s all about people and tourism as a people-driven activity. People travel to fulfil their passions so identify what these passions are and build products around these passion points.
“So training, training, training and building capacity to deliver the best quality service because that’s what people want because 60 per cent of the value of the experience of a visitor is service.”
He also emphasised that there must be a new way of thinking to hone tourism, noting that this must take into consideration how service is viewed.
“We have to get out of our heads the old thinking of the historic process which suggests that service and servitude are the same. They are not. Service is still the highest calling of all and there’s big money in service and tourism is showing that,” Bartlett stressed.
And indeed, Jamaica continues to be one of the top performing countries in the Caribbean when it comes to tourism and service.
The Jamaican Tourism Minister also spoke on a broader scale about how Caribbean countries can further strengthen and build their tourism resilience.
Noting that the Caribbean community is in a very vulnerable space, for example, from natural disasters of various types as well as exogenous shocks which disrupt tourism activity, he said consequently all those have to be treated with and managed.
“The importance of ensuring that these shocks are managed well is that tourism for the Caribbean is not just a social activity. It is the life blood of the region. In fact, some 26 per cent of the GDP of the entire Caribbean including Guyana is tourism and about 20 per cent of the employed persons in the region are related to tourism activities.
“It is a huge economic driver in the region and therefore, it has to be preserved and it has to be built in a manner that makes it resilient, nimble and innovative so that whenever the shocks come we can recover quickly and thrive afterwards,” Bartlett added.
During the conference the issue of financing was also discussed.
Dr Stacy Richards-Kennedy, regional manager for the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) also spoke to Guardian Media on how Caribbean countries can access more financing.
“On the heels of the pandemic many countries found themselves in a situation of having limited options and limited sources of financing and what we have been doing as CAF is expanding our outreach to the Caribbean and working with all of the countries across Caricom in the first instance to explain to them what are the benefits of becoming members in CAF...and also the range of financing instruments available...we also work closely as possible with governments to be flexible and also to customise the needs of that country,” Richards-Kennedy explained.
In sharing his own advice Bartlett said tourism assets can be enhanced through resources from the International Monetary Fund.
However, he advised that there ought to be a more dedicated funding for tourism resilience.
“I think that can be done by the tourists themselves who come into our space. I actually proposed that we look at the possibility of a ‘resilience tip’ so that in the same way that tourism partners would tip for good service..a waiter comes and does a good job and you give a tip. It is the same way that at every point of consumption you leave a tip,” he said.
Building airlift capacity
For island tourism, air transportation remains the primary mode and Bartlett stated that this capacity must therefore, be developed for continued growth.
“If we are to tap into the new markets for the far areas of the world like the Middle East and China we are going to have to have international transportation to move people from hubs that we would perhaps create within our region.
“Caricom leaders must begin to sit and concentrate heavily on this. We have to perhaps look at multilateral support, perhaps to how the World Bank can assist in building the capacity for air connectivity within the region,” he suggested.
However, he noted that the private sector can also play a key role in this development.
According to the Jamaican Tourism Minister there are areas to collaborate with international airlines and even local carriers to expand and to give them that ability to move from area to area.
There are also other factors to examine which has to do with geopolitical arrangements within the Caribbean.
“We need also to how to enable seamlessness within the air space of the Caribbean and perhaps to look at the visa regimes and border issues,” Bartlett further explained saying, these factors are also important in attracting investment.
While he acknowledged that several studies have already been done on these issues, Bartlett said what is needed is to take action and to do so now.
Centre rebranded
A focal point of the conference was the work of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre head office is in Kingston, Jamaica with other established offices in the Americas, Africa and the Middle East.
The main objective of the conference is to champion continued conversations about a more inclusive approach to tourism, that will allow for consolidated learning and implementation of strategies globally.
The centre is an international think tank headquartered at the Mona campus of The University of the West Indies.
At the event it was announced that it will now be known as the Global Tourism Resilience Centre as Bartlett noted that UN Tourism has forged a major partnership with the centre as Jamaica continues to build its brand as a destination.
UN Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, who was also present at the conference, said creating a Tourism Resilience Fund is currently being explored.
Meanwhile, Executive Director at the centre Professor Lloyd Waller also acknowledged that it continues to be a beacon of tourism resilience noting that the conference was a further step in the right direction in building capacity.
“Global disruptions have shown the need for us to build capacity in tourism as it remains one of the most vulnerable industries,” he added.
As part of the conference agenda, on February 17, Global Tourism Resilience Day was celebrated for the second time, recognising the official adoption by the United Nations on February 6, 2022, of the resolution to observe the day each year.
