Kingston, Jamaica – Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett has expressed that, in creating Jamaica’s new Tourism Strategy and Action Plan (TSAP), higher focus should be positioned on strengthening linkages with different sectors and stopping financial leakages. He was talking yesterday on the Spanish Court docket Lodge because the Ministry of Tourism, in collaboration with the Inter-American Improvement Financial institution (IDB), efficiently concluded its island-wide collection of tourism technique session workshops, with the ultimate session being held with stakeholders from the Kingston and St. Andrew vacation spot space.
The tourism minister highlighted that the technique will need to have an emphasis on reinforcing linkages between tourism and different productive sectors, corresponding to agriculture and manufacturing, to forestall financial leakages, because the sector prepares to fulfill the sustained and elevated demand of tourists over the following few years.
Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, speaks in the course of the opening session of the Tourism Technique and Motion Plan Session Workshop. Photograph Credit score: Mark Bell (JIS)
On this regard, Minister Bartlett famous: “Our technique in tourism should drive the linkages within the numerous areas, to cease the leakages from different areas.”
The workshops, which have garnered precious insights from a number of stakeholders throughout Jamaica’s seven vacation spot areas, kind part of the Ministry’s thrust to develop a complete new strategy and motion plan for the nation’s very important tourism trade.
“The entire thought of those technique growth workshops is to reply to innovation and the altering realities of probably the most dynamic industries on planet Earth. The dialogue right now is vital if we’re going to have the ability to create the capability to reply to the brand new structure that tourism will demand,” the tourism minister added.
He continued: “Our methods should additionally take into account how we make tourism extra inclusive and extra of an enabler of financial development and growth throughout Jamaica.”
Recognising that human capital growth stays on the coronary heart of the trade, Minister Bartlett harassed: “Our persons are the wealth of this nation. So, we should construct the capability of that wealth to not be useless capital however for that wealth to proceed to develop exponentially.”
Importantly, Minister Bartlett additionally acknowledged the distinctive challenges and alternatives every vacation spot space presents. Kingston, as an example, with its wealthy cultural heritage, he stated is poised to change into a key participant in tourism diversification efforts.
“At this time in Kingston, the colourful hub of Caribbean tradition, our focus is on enhancing Jamaica’s advantages from cultural tourism whereas additionally fostering its function as a key centre for enterprise tourism development,” defined Minister Bartlett.
The session workshops, one held for every vacation spot, offered a platform for buyers, entrepreneurs, authorities officers, group members, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to collectively look at points affecting Jamaica’s evolving tourism panorama.
