MINISTER of Tourism Edmund Bartlett has reiterated the Government’s plans to create a Tourism Authority which will lead the planned modernisation of the sector.

Bartlett, who first announced plans to create the Tourism Authority earlier this year, provided additional details as he made his contribution to the 2026/27 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

He underscored that for the new framework it will be necessary to enact legislation to repeal and replace the Tourist Board Act of 1955 and the River Rafting Authority Act of 1970, and introduce a Tourism Authority Act.

According to Bartlett, the new Tourism Authority is a critical part of the Tourism 3.0 concept that he has repeatedly touted in recent times.

The authority is one of the 10 pillars under the Tourism 3.0 concept, and Bartlett said this will bring the other pillars together under a unifying umbrella.

“The Tourism Authority is not about creating another layer of bureaucracy. It is about creating the institutional backbone required to govern a modern tourism economy,” Bartlett explained.

He argued that Jamaica’s tourism sector has outgrown the older administrative arrangements under which marketing, regulation, licensing, inspection, compliance, product development, destination assurance, and enforcement have evolved across different entities.

“Those arrangements served a purpose in an earlier period but the sector we are building now is larger, more complex, more diversified, more exposed to global risk, and more central to national development,” added Bartlett.

He said his ministry has already started engagement with critical stakeholders across the tourism ecosystem and wider public sector.

“Those engagements are necessary because this reform will touch licensing, registration, compliance, inspection, standards, enforcement, product quality, destination assurance, investor confidence, operator support, and visitor protection.

“The concept will soon be before Cabinet for approval, and it is our intention to have the policy developed and drafting instructions issued by the end of this financial year,” said Bartlett.

He told the House that this will be a significant step as Jamaica moves Tourism 3.0 from policy language into institutional action.

Elaborating, the minister said the proposed authority will become the principal regulatory body for the tourism sector, with its role being to bring greater clarity, consistency, speed, fairness, and accountability to the way the sector is regulated.

“The Tourism Authority will therefore be the institution that helps protect the promise Jamaica sells to the world. Under this new framework the Jamaica Tourist Board will be able to focus more clearly on its core destination marketing mission,” said the minister.

He explained that the authority will allow the Tourism Product Development Company to operate with a clearer development and destination-support mandate, while the Tourism Enhancement Fund will continue to support product enhancement, innovation, linkages, and strategic investment. For its part, Jamaica Vacations Limited will continue to support airlift, cruise development, home-porting, and access.

“Our commercial entities must operate under clear licensing, performance, governance, and accountability arrangements. And the Ministry of Tourism will continue to lead policy, strategy, legislation, coordination, international partnerships, and national direction,” Bartlett said in his prepared text.

“This is how the modern tourism system must work, with each institution clear in its mandate, accountable for performance, and connected to the national strategy. It will give confidence to the visitor and confidence to the investor,” he emphasised.

Bartlett said Tourism 3.0 is Jamaica’s strategy to move from tourism growth to tourism value, and from sector performance to national transformation.

According to the minister, “The future will not reward destinations that drift. It will reward destinations that organise, execute, measure, and adapt. It will reward countries that can connect farmers to forecasts, manufacturers to procurement, workers to training, communities to markets, visitors to authentic experiences, investors to clear rules, and policies to real data.”