Jamaica’s tourism administrators, and indeed the sector in general, deserve our heartiest congratulations for the continued solid performance of this industry.

A few weeks ago, Tourism Minister Dr Wykeham McNeill and Jamaica Tourist Board Chairman Dennis Morrison reported that investors are now busy constructing 2,694 new hotel rooms here.

That investment, they told us, amounted to US$500 million and, according to Minister McNeill, “is larger than any other in the history of the industry”.

As we reported in this newspaper, the new rooms are split between new properties and expansion on existing hotels in Negril, Montego Bay, Trelawny, St Ann, and Kingston.

That all this investment will provide 7,000 jobs in the construction phase, and between 4,000 and 5,000 permanent positions when the hotels are fully operational is just as encouraging. For that will help put a dent in the country’s unemployment figures.

We accept, though, that more needs to be done to really reduce unemployment to a negligible level. That, however, will depend on the environment for investment created by the Government, as well as Jamaicans preparing themselves to adequately fill positions as they become available.

We certainly see the environment being created in the tourism sector, as highlighted by Minister McNeill in yesterday’s Sunday Observer.

The Fiscal Incentives Act, which gives tourism entities tax benefits for reinvestment and refurbishing, as well as the new regime of approving incentives without the applications having to go the minister, are indeed forward-thinking and need to be used as templates for other sectors.

We have often argued in this space that if Jamaica is to achieve the level of growth that will pull us out of our economic rut, attractive incentives for investors will set us on that road.

The value of that kind of policy is evident in the current investments in tourism highlighted by Messrs McNeill and Morrison, as well as that announced two weeks ago by Mr Ruben Becerra, Karisma Hotels and Resorts’ vice-president of corporate affairs and business development.

Mr Becerra, readers will recall, said that his company is investing more than US$900 million in a nine-hotel project in St Ann that will add 4,000 new rooms to the sector over a decade and provide direct employment to at least 8,000 people.

Those are not numbers to sneeze at, and given what Minister McNeill has told us, he is now focused on ensuring that other sectors, and indeed the Jamaicans who work in tourism, benefit fully from these investments.

It is against that background that we hope the minister and his team will be able to craft and implement a solution to the thorny issue of housing for tourism workers.

If they can get that working, then they would have made great strides in having more Jamaicans own and protect tourism. Achieving that ideal will redound to the country’s benefit.