Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, has called for the establishment of a US$10 billion Global Tourism Resilience Fund with dedicated support for Small Island Developing States and other economies highly dependent on tourism. The proposal was made at the World Economic Forum in Geneva.
Bartlett promoted placing tourism at the centre of global development policy, arguing that the industry should be measured not only on visitor numbers and receipts but by the prosperity, security and resilience it creates for local communities. He stated, “I come before you with a conviction born of Jamaica’s experience: tourism belongs at the nucleus
of global development.”
Bartlett Highlights Tourism’s Economic Scale and Vulnerability
According to estimates from the World Travel & Tourism Council, travel and tourism contributed US$11.6 trillion to the global economy in 2025 and supported 366 million jobs, including those in supply chains and tourism-dependent incomes. Bartlett noted tourism’s role accounts for nearly one-tenth of global output and about one in nine jobs worldwide.
He highlighted the extreme vulnerability of small island economies exposed to global shocks, citing the 74 percent collapse in international tourist arrivals during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica, which caused the temporary closure of Royalton Negril hotel.
The hotel’s August 2026 reopening restored employment for hundreds of workers, an example Bartlett said illustrates “the human meaning of resilience.”
Jamaica’s Tourism 3.0 Model Focuses on Local Prosperity
Bartlett outlined Jamaica’s Tourism 3.0 framework, a strategy integrating tourism more closely with the national economy to improve outcomes for Jamaican workers and communities. This model expands beyond traditional metrics to consider who supplies the industry, who owns businesses, worker security, and community impacts.
The approach incorporates worker security, professional development, domestic supply chains, entrepreneurship, technology, and resilience. Legislated in 2019 and launched in 2022, the Tourism Workers Pension Scheme now provides coverage for multiple occupational categories including self-employed
workers. Bartlett emphasized, “The person who spends a working life caring for visitors deserves to approach later life with security.”
The Jamaica Centre of Tourism Innovation has certified more than 25,000 workers, ensuring recognized skills and career advancement opportunities. Additionally, the Tourism Linkages Network and Agri-Linkages Exchange (ALEX) connect local businesses and farmers directly with the tourism economy. ALEX facilitated over J$450 million in produce sales in 2024 alone, supporting agriculture and rural communities.
Local First Initiative and Tourism Innovation Efforts
Jamaica’s Local First initiative, launched by a 2025 task force, promotes greater Jamaican ownership and earning within tourism. The country is also developing a Tourism Supply
Logistics Centre to lessen barriers between domestic producers and major tourism buyers.
The Tourism Innovation Incubator supports Jamaican entrepreneurs creating new tourism products and technologies, promoting digital solutions and artificial intelligence to enhance worker and business productivity under the Tourism 3.0 vision.
Resilience and Global Leadership
The Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre, established in 2019 at The University of the West Indies in Jamaica, serves as a research and training hub focusing on preparedness and crisis management for tourism. Jamaica’s COVID-19 Resilient Corridors provided operational lessons for managing destination assurance and safe reopening during the pandemic.
Jamaica contributed to the creation of
the UN-recognized Global Tourism Resilience Day, promoting worldwide awareness of the industry’s vulnerabilities and the need for timely preparation.
Bartlett described Jamaica’s Tourism 3.0 as a “working proof of concept” that brings together functioning pension systems, a certified workforce, digital supply exchanges, and an institutional framework for resilience. He invited other countries and international bodies to study the model and assess its outcomes.
His remarks emphasized that small islands should not confront global-origin risks with only local-scale resources, calling for strengthened global cooperation underpinned by the proposed US$10 billion Global Tourism Resilience Fund.
