Last summer Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced that her country was accepting applications for its new “Welcome Stamp Program”. Under this programme, special visas had been approved, giving people from anywhere in the world the opportunity to relocate to the island, live like a Bajan, place their children in school, and work remotely for one year.

Mottley figured that since the novel coronavirus pandemic had changed the global business landscape to have large numbers of people working from home, why not invite them to do it in paradise? ( The Washington Post, July 2020)

Very soon after, my friend, her husband, and their two children jumped on a plane and headed to Barbados. As the vice-president of a Fortune 500 company, she went to work every day online, her children attended school, and they all experienced a better quality of life while California grappled with the pandemic.

One year later, the Barbados Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams announced that the programme which received 2,810 applications from more than 100 countries was a resounding success with significant multiplier advantages to the economy. As a result, the Bajan House of Assembly introduced the Remote Employment (Amendment) Bill in June 2021 to extend the visas for over 3,000 people who chose to make Barbados their home during the pandemic.

International tourism accounts for roughly 30 per cent of global trade in services. It is estimated that one out of every 11 jobs worldwide is directly or indirectly interlinked to tourism (International Trade Centre). For many countries in our region it is the single-largest foreign exchange earner, and while COVID-19 may have momentarily destroyed the tourism economy for many of us, it created an opportunity for Barbados to pivot, innovate, and diversify.

Why doesn’t Jamaica lean in and develop a similar model? Or, rather, why don’t we market Jamaica as a retirement destination? After all, Jamaica is an idyllic setting for someone’s retirement. Our envious climate, close proximity to the US market, and our easy travel gateways are all clear advantages. Plus, we are English-speaking, have good doctors and nurses, a modern communications network, the best music, and most importantly low-housing cost and competitive labour rates.

The United States Census Bureau estimates that in the next five years the US population over 60 years old will be approximately 54 million, of which 0.3 per cent (162,000) will elect to live abroad as there is an insufficient variety of living options available for them. Added to this reality are the cold winters, high costs of living, and high health-care costs which are also pushing this segment to seek other retirement options outside of the US.

With 10,000 Baby Boomers retiring in the US every day (almost 4 million people a year), we should target this market and promote Jamaica as a retirement destination. Looking at just half a per cent of this market, which represents an effective demand of over 20,000 persons annually, they are in need of some form of dwelling from the US alone. At an average spend of US$35,000 per annum this could represent an added US$7 billion to the Jamaican economy, or over $1 trillion, which would be a third larger than the Government’s annual recurrent budget of $750 billion. Additionally, many in our Jamaican Diaspora will reach retirement age within the next five years and could potentially add another 178,000.

Retirement communities provide plenty economic spin-off opportunities, and a constant flow of foreign exchange through the creation of jobs, the fixed acquisition costs of housing, and the steady flow of additional tourists who visit their elderly loved ones. There is also the direct benefit of these retirees investing in community projects as well as six main sectors of the Jamaican economy being positively impacted; namely, agriculture, construction, manufacturing, tourism, financial services, and health care.

Already, Mexico, Panama and Costa Rica, which share Jamaica’s tropical climate conditions, are all developing a range of retirement housing products with the average cost being US$35,000 per annum. According to the US Department of State, more than 20,000 US expatriates live in Costa Rica, many of them as retirees. Trelawny, Hanover and St Ann are best suited for these so called retirement villages, and Jamaica should move quickly and add to the options available for retirees who are looking for rest and relaxation with their pensions and other health-care benefits.

How do we fund it?

Richmond Estates in St Ann gives a clear indication of the potential of this market, as foreigners reportedly own more than 50 per cent of the homes. The best part of creating this industry is that future developments can be easily funded through public private partnerships (PPPs). For example, the Government could provide the land and institute a dedicated specialised team to quickly cut through unnecessary bureaucracy and expedite the building and other approval processes.

Mortgage funding for the developments could be easily mobilised from the pension funds, or the National Housing Trust (NHT) could provide a guarantee for a mortgage bond to be funded by the Diaspora. This would give qualified Jamaican developers a better opportunity to build these retirement and assisted living villages as a part of a master plan incorporating housing, health care, golf courses, and entertainment facilities.

Between 1990 to 2000, 80 per cent of Jamaica’s tertiary graduates emigrated (World Bank, 2005) Over the next five years there will be a continuous global demand for home health aides, nursing assistants, construction workers, physical therapy aides, medical technologists, registered nurses, physicians and surgeons, medical and health services managers, physical therapists, and nurse practitioners (CNBC July 2020). In a world of free trade, we must have the courage to think differently now, take the risk, and establish niche markets in services that we can globally compete in.

In Jamaica we are still approaching the concept of national growth and employment creation for our people in the same way we have done for the past 50 years. Let us train and prepare our people and employ them right here at home for retirement tourism development to build our Jamaican economy.

No more pretty parliamentary speeches and full-page advertisements in the newspapers, it is time to pivot our tourism industry and invite people to a whole new dimension of retirement in Jamaica.

Lisa Hanna is Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern, People’s National Party spokesperson on foreign affairs and foreign trade, and a former Cabinet member.