Jamaica is pushing forward with plans to establish a tourism supply logistics hub designed to deepen the sector’s impact on the economy by integrating manufacturing, procurement, and supply chain management into tourism operations.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has framed the initiative as a “critical step” in expanding the industry’s contribution beyond traditional services, such as hospitality and entertainment, to a more robust value-added model that benefits local industries.

The concept of a logistics supply hub was first introduced to the public in June 2022 when Minister Bartlett, closing the 2022/23 Sectoral Debate, announced plans to position Jamaica as a planning supply hub for both the local tourism sector and other tourism-dependent nations in the region. The idea originated from the Tourism Recovery Task Force chaired by Wilfred Baghaloo in 2020 and was designed to give Jamaican businesses the capacity to grow locally, regionally, and internationally. With ongoing global supply chain disruptions, the Government envisions that the hub will help eliminate uncertainties and ensure stable access to goods and services essential to the sector.

It’s back on the agenda for fiscal year 2025/26.

The hub, to be located within a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), will focus on three key areas: mobilising supplies for the industry, expanding Jamaica’s capacity for regional procurement, and developing new logistics and accounting services linked to tourism. Minister Bartlett explained that the facility would serve as a gateway for both local and international suppliers, ensuring a steady flow of base stock and finished goods essential to the hospitality sector.

“We could look at creating facilities for light industries, producing sheets, bedding, pillowcases, blankets, and other high-demand items that we currently import,” Bartlett said during his presentation in the Standing Finance Committee on March 5.

“The logistics supply centre will broaden tourism’s impact on the economy and change the view that we are just about being housekeepers and bartenders. This is about creating a new area of value-added services and higher earning potential within the industry,” he continued.

Additionally, the hub will explore processing agricultural inputs that Jamaica does not produce at scale, allowing the country to better cater to the growing needs of hotels and resorts.

A key part of the initiative is aimed at strengthening Jamaica’s role as a procurement centre for the wider Caribbean, supplying markets such as Trinidad and Barbados. This expansion of the tourism value chain aligns with broader Government efforts to encourage reshoring — bringing outsourced business activities back to the region — to reduce dependence on imports.

Jamaica’s tourism industry generates substantial demand for goods and services, yet much of the sector’s supply chain remains externally sourced. Studies indicate that the sector’s consumption patterns far exceed those of local residents, with estimates showing demand at 4-5 times the national average. A 2019 Tourism Linkages Council study revealed that the industry required J$39.6 billion in agricultural products and J$352 billion in manufactured goods.

However, more recent research puts the demand for local fruits and vegetables from the tourism sector at roughly $362 billion and manufacturing demand closer to the region of US$4 billion.

“Agriculture is much than that when you add the demand for meat, eggs and poultry; its huge,” Minister Bartlett said in responding from the opposing administration.

“We provided some funding to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica through the Tourism Enhancement Fund to do a satellite study which would give us a more detailed breakdown of where the demand is throughout the various sectors of the economy. We haven’t been able to get that together. We have a sense overall of what it is; but, to be frank with the nation, we don’t have a detailed breakdown. But it’s enough to guide how investment will flow,” he added.

The talks of establishing a tourism linkages hub comes at a time when the Government appears to be shifting its stance on how hotel operators conduct business with local manufacturers.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness has hinted at a possible review of the Hotel Incentive Act, stating at the recent Grand Palladium ground-breaking ceremony in Montego Bay, St James, that moral suasion alone may not be enough to increase local procurement.

“We must give our local producers who supply the tourism industry long-term supply contracts so that they can invest in building capacity and making the quality the standard that you would like. So that is a directive that, if we don’t see it happen by virtue of this kind of moral suasion, then we will have to go further to ensure that as our tourism grows, it is genuinely growing sustainably and fairly, which for me, this means everybody will prosper,” he said on February 20.

The PM has stopped short of saying what such a review would entail or when it might happen. More details are expected during Jamaica’s Budget Debate 2025/26 which opened on Tuesday.