KINGSTON, Jamaica — Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett is urging banks to invest more in the sector’s value chain by establishing portfolios geared towards tourism.

This, Bartlett said, will provide more access to funding to build capacity among smaller players in the sector and stimulate more economic growth.

“Last year, 1.4 billion people travelled the globe and spent US$1.6 trillion. In that same year, the value of tourism to global GDP was 11 per cent. In the Caribbean, one in five jobs are tourism based and foreign exchange generated by tourism in the region represents more than 50 per cent of the total foreign exchange generated which includes minerals and extractive industries.

“Despite this growth, we recognise that tourism was never organised or structured as an industry and a driver of the economy. It just mushroomed and has grown exponentially while make-shift arrangements were made to facilitate it,” said Bartlett.

The minister was speaking at a breakfast meeting organised by executives of First Global Bank with several key tourism stakeholders from Montego Bay on Friday.

“As tourism continues its growth, things are changing and we must respond appropriately to meet the needs of this mega industry starting with a labour market architecture. That is why I have initiated the Human Capital Development Strategy to train and certify all the workers through the Jamaica Centre of Tourism Innovation to build a professional cadre of hospitality practitioners who can now be classified and salaried in relation to qualifications and competences,” Bartlett highlighted.

He also spoke about the need for a more structured approach to investing in tourism.

“Tourism has now morphed into public funding where Wall Street is now a big player which means the ownership structure of the industry is changing globally and the requirements are changing.

“In fact, the impact of Wall Street is changing the production and consumption patterns in the industry as we are now moving towards the commodification of tourism where price and value will play a more important role in a destination’s competitiveness. Because tourism remains a people centred activity, service will be the point of differentiation and so training remains a critical area in restructuring the industry to boost our competitive edge,” he said.

In outlining investment opportunities in the sector, Bartlett also expressed that: “When we look at what drives investment in tourism, we see that a key potential area to invest in is the reasons people travel. People travel to fulfil their passions such as food, shopping and entertainment and we must build out experiences around these passion points.

“A major area is food as data shows that 88 per cent of the world travels for food. So we must invest in food experiences of all types and then then you must also invest in the basis of getting the food, that means investing in agriculture and agro processing applications.”

Data from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica shows that tourism’s contribution to the country’s economic growth is continuing its upward trajectory.

In 2017, the sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP was nine per cent, up from 8.4 per cent in 2016. This represents a seven per cent growth which is a little over six times the annualised GDP growth. This means tourism is actually growing six times the rate of the growth of GDP.

Last year over 4.31 million visitors arrived in Jamaica; 2.4 million via airports and a further 1.8 million by cruise. These visitors generated approximately US$3.3 billion in earnings, an 8.6 per cent increase over 2017.