MANDEVILLE, Manchester —Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett says the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) will be a key component of Jamaica’s tourism sector recovery and rebuilding, including the expansion of infrastructure like highways linking attractions and destinations on the South Coast.

“The expansion and reimagining of tourism… the whole idea is that by June 30 of this year we should have a roadmap which is to take us beyond the last 10 years and give a direction into the next 10 years of tourism in Jamaica,” he said in reference to his upcoming contribution to the 2026/27 Sectoral Debate.

“That will be influenced also by the activities of NaRRA as we complete the legislative arrangements by next week and the whole business of building better, building more efficiently, and building faster is going to be the reality of that, and tourism is going to be at the centre of that whole recovery and reimagining of destination Jamaica,” added Bartlett.

His comments were made during Thursday’s South Coast Confidence Tour at Garden Hotel in Mandeville. Following the tour in Mandeville, Bartlett and technocrats in the Ministry of Tourism were scheduled to visit Appleton Estate, J Charles Swaby’s Black River Safari, Lovers Leap, Lashings, Jack Sprat and Jakes Hotel in St Elizabeth as part of a two-day tour.

He reiterated the Government’s aim of utilising NaRRA to rebuild Black River further inland and enhance the tourism product there.

“It is going to be a new look [for] Black River and Black River will be hugely touristic as the town moves away from the coastline and the coastline becomes more touristic. We go into Lucea and Falmouth similarly, so the tourism is now going to see not just a renewal as an exciting destination, but it will also see a communication link as the highway structure that will be done through NaRRA will again connect us to the different nodes in a relatively short time,” said Bartlett.

“It is important for there to be seamlessness in the movement from one location to another,” he added.

He said Jamaica’s tourism sector has continuously been bouncing back with room capacity close to 80 per cent now compared to the corresponding period last year.

“We are saying to the world that the recovery from [Hurricane] Melissa is strong…, the resilience of the Jamaican people is coming out every time and in almost every single instance that we have gone to look at the recovery programme has been beyond our expectations. We told the world that we will be ready for them starting December 15 and that on a continued basis we would extend that readiness to complete full 100 per cent recovery by the end of 2026,” said Bartlett.

“We are still on track to go as close to that as we can, with some minor exceptions that will perhaps materialise fully in the first quarter of 2027, but the industry has come back and in relation to our room capacity now, we are just close to 80 per cent on last year and that is excellent,” added Bartlett.