MAJOR players in the tourism industry have been charged to create opportunities to upskill young people to ensure they are inspired to enter the industry.

The charge was issued last Friday by Adam Stewart, executive chairman of Sandals Resorts International and Appliance Traders Group, which includes the Jamaica Observer Media Group.

Stewart was speaking during a panel discussion at the Global Tourism Resilience Conference at the Regional Headquarters of The University of the West Indies, Mona, in St Andrew.

The panel discussion was focused on the future of tourism, and Stewart said there is more room for the sector to grow at this time as the new leaders are not confrontational, but work together to enhance the industry.

“There is a new generation of tourism leadership taking place today between public and private sector that is not adversarial. We are no longer in the stage of Caribbean tourism where we are fighting each other,” said Stewart.

“Agriculture grows with us, manufacturing grows with us, entertainment grows with us, everything grows with us; and the more we hold hands and follow [the] leadership of [Tourism] Minister [Edmund] Bartlett and other champions is the more we will be collectively… It is about making sure more nationals strategically — because we plan for it — become a part of the ecosystem of what tourism represents,” added Stewart, to much applause.

He said while Jamaica’s private sector does a great job, it needs to go further in recognising the importance of upskilling “so that our people in this region can hold all of the biggest jobs.

“My company is world-famous for having this incredible reputation and 98 per cent of our 18,500 employees are Caribbean nationals holding the best jobs, at the highest level,” said Stewart.

“I have a hard time when anybody says we can’t achieve it because even today, as we are achieving, I can assure you that what is coming in the next three years of sophistication for global hospitality that will be demonstrated through our company, powered by our people, is going to be the next frontier of hospitality. But it comes with foresight, it comes with financial commitment, it comes with framework, it comes with preparing,” he added.

Stewart argued that tourism leaders have a duty to “hold the hands of the younger generation” to give them the push needed to succeed in the industry.

“We cannot live in our own generation. The generation Z and Y, millennials, we have to realise that they think differently, we have to change our language to bring them in, and we must inspire them to come into the greatest industry or else they won’t come — they will choose something else. Tourism is the best industry in the world,” declared Stewart.