A year after the Government announced that it would transfer the inflows from the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) to the Consolidated Fund, as part of an International Monetary Fund-stipulated central management strategy, TEF Chairman Godfrey Dyer says the new regime has not had any negative effects on the sector.

“It hasn’t suffered any adverse effects. As a matter of fact, it has worked out better than we anticipated.

“I for one was fearful, and as a result we had serious discussions with the Ministry of Finance [and] they have been working with us all the way. We still are able to fund all the things that we normally fund, only that the fund goes somewhere else than where it used to go, but it is ending up where we have always planned for it to go,” Dyer said at this week’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange, where Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett and his team outlined plans for the industry.

The annual inflows to the TEF from airline ticket and cruise ship taxes average $6 billion, and it is expected that the fund will round out the fiscal year at approximately $6.7 billion.

Last year the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) spoke out against the move by the Government, raising concerns that there had not been sufficient consultation and that there could be challenges in accessing resources from the central treasury to finance projects in the tourism sector. Dyer said the association is now “very happy with what is happening”.

Speaking with the Observer yesterday, JHTA President Omar Robinson said: “We concur with that. It takes advanced planning so that we can get projects approved in time to be submitted for the budget. For us, what has been important is to get the projects completed within the financial year… it hasn’t posed any significant problems.”

Meanwhile, Bartlett indicated that the TEF has been restructured to become a critical, functional arm of the tourism delivery programme, so that it will cease being solely “a banker of funds”.

“So that we will be achieving results in a far more defined way, and in a way that is more measurable and manageable, because the truth is the TEF had functioned more like the ATM of the Government. Now it is far more structured and we can measure the results and returns on investments,” he stated.

In his 2017/18 budget presentation, Finance Minister Audley Shaw said that expected surpluses of $19 billion from the TEF, the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority, and the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education Fund, would accrue to central government, and arrangements then made for the agencies to receive budgetary allocations to meet their obligations.

The TEF was set up in 2004 under the tourism master plan to implement projects and programmes for the growth and development of the industry, enhance the tourist experience, and facilitate greater linkages with other sectors in the country. It is funded by a tax of US$20 on airline tickets originating outside of Jamaica, and US$2 for cruise ship passengers. The TEF finances up to 60 per cent of activities executed by the Jamaica Tourist Board and Jamaica Vacations Limited.