MONTEGO BAY, St James —Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has once again assured stakeholders in Jamaica’s fast-growing peer-to-peer accommodation sector that impending oversight is designed to safeguard the country’s tourism product, not stifle innovation.

“The plan to enable greater accountability in all areas of the accommodation subsector is critical, and it is not intended to destroy. It is intended to enhance and to build,” Bartlett said as he fielded questions during a media breakfast held Tuesday at the Jewel Grande Montego Bay Resort and Spa in St James as part of the Jamaica Product Exchange (JAPEX) 2025.

Peer-to-peer stays in Jamaica refer to accommodation rentals, such as those available on platforms like Airbnb, where homeowners offer their properties to travellers for short-term stays. These are a popular alternative to hotels, providing visitors with potential cost savings, more space, access to kitchens, and the opportunity to stay in local neighbourhoods. However, the tourism minister has often stressed the need to ensure guests are safe while they stay at these properties which are unlicensed and unregulated. Alongside the safety of visitors, the Government has often touted the importance of having more Jamaicans benefit from the tourism industry and keeping tourism dollars within the local economy.

“We need to know where you’re going so that we can respond to whatever your concerns are. At the end of the day, we have situations where we get media reports of incidents in very remote areas of Jamaica where we have no knowledge of; there’s no registered group to understand that yes this is where you are, this is how things are going there. We have to make sure that we protect the integrity of the destination,” Bartlett reiterated Tuesday.

He stressed Jamaica’s commitment to a “safe, secure and seamless experience” for every visitor.

“It’s an expanding and growing thing in the context of destination assurance, and that point I made earlier of not allowing our guests to ever, ever second guess the integrity of our promise that you will have a safe, secure and seamless experience in Jamaica. It behoves us, then, to have all of these areas of accommodation on our radar,” the minister explained.

He reminded his audience that he was an early advocate for home-sharing, when traditional hotels had strongly resisted the new model.

“And, just for the record, your minister here was the poster child for Airbnb at the beginning. I was chairman of the Executive Council of the UN Tourism when they came before us, and there was a heavy push back to peer-to-peer accommodation by the formal hotels. And as chairman, I stood up and said, ‘We are democratising the accommodation subsector, we are innovating, and therefore business models are going to emerge, and then they are going to fold, and they’re going to emerge again, and you’re going to be having more and more innovation within this area’,” he recounted.

Bartlett explained that Airbnb is a brand and a business model which falls under the larger umbrella of peer-to-peer accommodation.

“Peer-to-peer is an innovation, the share economy, we call it, and therefore I persuaded them to accept and that’s how Airbnb became a global phenomenon today. Jamaica was the first country in the Caribbean to have Airbnb presence, and they came here as a result of my initiative. I make that point only to give comfort to all of those who are involved in that element of the accommodation sector, that under no condition will any of our programmes, policies or direction be geared at hurting, but rather to enhance and, most importantly, to protect the integrity of Destination Jamaica,” the minister assured.

He stressed the rapid pace of progress being observed in what he described as “the fastest growing accommodation subsector within the tourism space”, noting that more than 30 per cent of visitors to Jamaica in 2024 had an “Airbnb-type experience”.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett and state minister in the Ministry of Tourism Tova Hamilton arrive at the Jamaica Product Exchange (JAPEX) 2025 media breakfast held at Jewel Grande Montego Bay Resort and Spa in St James, on Tuesday morning. (Photo: Philp Lemonte)