Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, has called for the establishment of a US$10 billion Global Tourism Resilience Fund aimed to support Small Island Developing States and other economies heavily reliant on tourism. Bartlett presented this proposal during the World Economic Forum held in Geneva, Switzerland, in September 2026.
Bartlett Advocates Tourism as Central to Global Development
Bartlett urged that tourism be placed at the core of global development policies, moving beyond traditional measures such as visitor arrivals and earnings. He stressed that tourism’s success should be evaluated by the prosperity, security, and resilience it creates for local populations. “I come before you with a conviction born of
Jamaica’s experience: tourism belongs at the nucleus of global development,” Bartlett said.
He illustrated tourism’s broad impact by noting the roles of farmers, builders, musicians, and families involved in the tourism economy. Bartlett highlighted the importance of ensuring that economic benefits reach these stakeholders, warning that success metrics focusing solely on numbers of visitors fail to capture who owns, supplies, and secures livelihoods within the industry.
Tourism 3.0 Model Underpins Proposal
The proposal for the Global Tourism Resilience Fund is part of Jamaica’s Tourism 3.0 strategy. This approach integrates agriculture, manufacturing, culture, technology, and domestic capabilities with tourism to increase local ownership and national prosperity.
Bartlett described Tourism 3.0 as a shift from evaluating tourism only by arrivals and earnings to measuring the value created for Jamaicans.
Tourism Workers Pension Scheme legislation was enacted in 2019 and launched in 2022 to provide retirement security for workers across multiple tourism occupations, including eligible self-employed individuals. The Jamaica Centre of Tourism Innovation has trained and certified over 25,000 tourism workers, strengthening professional development and career progression.
Connecting local producers with the tourism sector is a key element of Tourism 3.0. In 2024, the Agri-Linkages Exchange (ALEX) facilitated more than J$450 million in produce sales by linking farmers
directly with hotels. The Local First initiative, established in 2025, promotes increased local supply, ownership, and income generation within the tourism sector.
Building Resilience Against Crises
Bartlett underscored the vulnerabilities of Small Island Developing States, which often depend on limited infrastructure such as airports and ports and face significant risks from hurricanes and pandemics. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a 74% drop in international tourist arrivals in 2020, exposing these vulnerabilities. More recently, Hurricane Melissa caused significant disruption in Jamaica, including the closure of hotels.
The reopening of the Royalton Negril hotel in August 2026 after Hurricane Melissa restoration brought hundreds of employees back
to work, illustrating tourism’s role in restoring household incomes. Bartlett said, “Each returning worker represented a household regaining income. That is the human meaning of resilience.”
The Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre at the University of the West Indies, established in 2019, supports research and training in tourism crisis management. Jamaica’s COVID-19 Resilient Corridors provided operational lessons on destination assurance and reopening protocols. The country also helped establish the United Nations observance of Global Tourism Resilience Day.
Long-Term Strategic Priorities
Tourism 3.0 rests on five key policy priorities: human capital development; sustained reinvestment in destinations, products, and communities; modern infrastructure and
visitor experience; air connectivity and travel facilitation; and destination assurance and resilience. Bartlett emphasized that investing in workforce skills and security, improving infrastructure that serves both residents and visitors, facilitating travel connections, and enhancing resilience against disruptions are critical to future tourism success.
Bartlett invited global partners to examine Jamaica’s Tourism 3.0 model and apply its insights. He stated, “Our proposition is that a small island can contribute a model of development with global relevance.” According to World Travel & Tourism Council data cited by Bartlett, travel and tourism contributed US$11.6 trillion to the global economy in 2025 and supported
366 million jobs.
