Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, called for the creation of a US$10 billion Global Tourism Resilience Fund during his address at the World Economic Forum in Geneva in September 2026. The fund aims to support Small Island Developing States and other highly tourism-dependent economies in preparing for and recovering from global crises.
Global tourism’s economic scale and vulnerabilities
Bartlett cited estimates from the World Travel & Tourism Council showing that travel and tourism contributed US$11.6 trillion to the global economy in 2025 and supported 366 million jobs worldwide, representing nearly one-tenth of global output and about one in nine jobs. Despite its scale, tourism remains
vulnerable to shocks such as pandemics and natural disasters.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused international tourist arrivals to fall by 74% in 2020, illustrating the sector’s fragility. Small Island Developing States face particular risks due to reliance on limited airports and ports and exposure of hotels and communities to coastal hazards.
Tourism 3.0: Jamaica’s integrated model
Bartlett promoted Jamaica’s Tourism 3.0 strategy, which aims to measure tourism success by the prosperity, security, and resilience it creates for local people rather than solely by visitor arrivals and earnings. The model integrates agriculture, manufacturing, culture, technology, and other domestic industries with tourism.
Jamaica has legislated and launched the
Tourism Workers Pension Scheme covering all tourism occupational categories, including eligible self-employed workers. Since its establishment, the Jamaica Centre of Tourism Innovation has trained and certified more than 25,000 workers to enhance professional development and career pathways in the sector.
The Tourism Linkages Network operates the Agri-Linkages Exchange (ALEX), which facilitated over J$450 million in farm produce sales in 2024 by connecting local farmers directly with hotels and other buyers. The Local First initiative, started in 2025, works to increase local supply, ownership, and earnings within the tourism economy.
Building resilience and crisis management
Bartlett highlighted the reopening of the Royalton Negril hotel in August
2026 following closure due to Hurricane Melissa, reinstating hundreds of jobs and representing a human aspect of resilience. The Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre, established in 2019 at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, serves as an institutional base for tourism crisis research and training.
Jamaica’s COVID-19 Resilient Corridors provided operational expertise on destination assurance and reopening during the pandemic. The country also played a key role in establishing the United Nations observance of Global Tourism Resilience Day to promote preparedness.
Bartlett said, “I come before you with a conviction born of Jamaica’s experience: tourism belongs
at the nucleus of global development.” He stressed that small islands should not face global risks with only local-scale resources and advocated for international investment through the proposed fund.
He added, “When tourism succeeds in the fullest sense, the farmer gains a dependable buyer, the worker gains a future, and the community gains the means to improve its own life. This is why tourism must occupy a central place wherever the world discusses sustainable development.”
Jamaica’s Tourism 3.0 framework focuses on long-term priorities including human capital, reinvestment in communities, modern infrastructure, travel connectivity, and resilience to strengthen the sector’s sustainability
and economic integration.
