Small- and Medium-sized Businesses are Vital Sources of Stability
With a record-breaking 4.31 million travelers visiting Jamaica in 2018, the island nation’s tourism industry is poised to boost its rate of growth by expanding investments in small- and medium-sized business enterprises (SMTEs), said Jamaica’s Tourism Minister, the Hon. Edmund Bartlett, CD, MP.
Min. Bartlett spoke today at the “Second Global Conference on Jobs and Inclusive Growth: Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises,” which was co-presented by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and Jamaica’s Ministry of Tourism.
More than 80 percent of tourism is driven by small- and medium-sized enterprises in Jamaica.
“Increasing investment in national economies and its citizens will only result in having greater resources to provide an enhanced visitor experience,” said Min. Bartlett. “Here in Jamaica, it is through a broad range of strategies such as education, specialized training, and credit financing that is enabling us to professionalize Jamaica’s tourism industry, so more of our citizens can be on par with travel professionals around the world.”
More than 200 SMTE members convened at the Montego Bay Convention Centre, in Montego Bay, Jamaica, to participate in discussions led by an impressive roster of local and international speakers and panelists that included: Jamaica’s Minister of Industry Audley Shaw, CD, MP; Jaime Cabal, Deputy Secretary-General, UNWTO; Nestor Mendez, Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States; and keynote remarks by Álvaro Uribe Vélez, the former President of Colombia.
“The small- and medium-business sector contributes most to Jamaica tourism, yet only 20 percent of SMTE revenue returns to their benefit,” added Min. Bartlett. “Today, we recharged the dialogue on how to rebalance that anomaly and to back good ideas with investment capital.” He said strategies are in place to allow SMTEs to understand their potential, thereby moving from “mom-and-pop” operators to established, reliable sources of sustainable and long-term income.
Recently, the Ministry of Tourism has directed nearly J$1Billion into the Export–Import Bank of the United States for lending at a rate of four-and-a-half percent to Jamaica’s SMTEs, which has generated an overwhelming response from local small business owners. “To date some J$950 million has been lent to more than 70 entities and they are also making repayments with interest. By April, J$132 million in interest would have been repaid,” Min. Bartlett said.
In addition, the Organisation of American States (OAS) committed a total of US$500,000 to build the resilience of SMTEs to natural disasters and disruptions to tourism. The project, which is being executed over two years, is funded by the United States Department of State and managed by the OAS Secretariat for Integral Development.
Jamaica PM speaks at launch of Global Tourism Resilience & Crisis Management Centre
At the launch of the Global Tourism Resilience & Crisis Management Centre, Jamaica Prime Minister Hon. Andrew Holness shared his thoughts on the importance of the work being initiated today through this Centre not only for tourism, but for the global economy as well.
“Over the last several years, governments and societies have become increasingly aware of the need to mainstream resilient strategies in their everyday operations. Faced with a wide range of dynamic threats, the global economy has become far more volatile and increasingly uncertain. Consequently, policymakers across all economic sectors globally are facing unprecedented demands to insure that strategies promoting resilience, mitigation, and adaptation are central to their agendas for achieving sustainable resilience.
“Of all the major industries globally, arguably none faces greater exposure to disruptive forces than the hyper-connected tourism sector. The irony of the tourism industry is that the tourism sector has also displayed this uncanny ability to recover. So there is just something about tourism that is resilient. It is the most exposed but has also demonstrated the greatest ability to recover.
“And in speculating, I was in the room when Peter [Tarlow] offered his thesis as to why this may be, and Richard in his doctoral thesis delivering here today, might have suggested that it is because travel is so important to the global economy, that policymakers go the extra mile to insure that whenever there is a global disaster that is disruptive and dislocating that we put in place very quickly the measures to open up the government or open back the government. So the thesis offered by Peter is that the government of the United States reopened as soon as it was clear that airports were about to shut down, and that is indeed the hope of travel and tourism and insuring that we and recover quickly.
“The most recent data provided by the UNWTO found that in 2018 the tourism sector grew by 4.6 percent, and that was much faster than the global economy. For Jamaica over the last 10 years, our tourism industry grew by 36 percent. That’s amazing! While the rest of the overall economy over the last 10 years grew by 6 percent. So tourism is the standout performer.
“To reinforce the point, in the last decade, Jamaica suffered terribly in the last global recession. Luckily, our financial sector did not suffer as badly as others, but the rest of our economy plummeted in 2009. In fact the latest data is showing that we are just now recovering ground where our economy has grown back to where it was in 2009 at the start of the recession. But tourism has just grown leaps and bounds, and that reinforces the point that there can be all kinds of shots to the economy, and many industries will take far longer to recover, but tourism has managed to recover very quickly. So for policymakers it is important that we study this phenomenon, we understand it, and we properly document it and assimilate it, and mainstream it into our practices to insure that whatever kind of disaster may affect us, we can actually recover.
“So, I’m very impressed with the work that is going to be done by the Resilience Center, not just for tourism but more importantly lessons that other industries can learn about speed of recovery after disasters and building in redundancies and protocols to insure that we have resilience and sustainability. It is a very important institution, and I am very happy that we initiated it and we have actually executed the Centre being launched here today.”
Building Resilience of Caribbean SMTEs: OAS launches $500,000 project
The Organization of American States (OAS) has launched a US$500,000 project to assist the region’s small and medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs) to build resilience to natural disasters.
The project was launched during the 2nd Global Conference on Jobs and Inclusive Growth: Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs), hosted at the Montego Bay Convention Centre by the government and the United Nations World Tourism Organization on January 29.
Speaking ahead of the launch, Tourism Minister Hon. Edmund Bartlett said, “We are so happy to have the vast expertise of the Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Nestor Mendez, at the launch who I am pleased to say comes bearing gifts. This very important resilience project for our SMTEs will help build the capacity of our sector to better help us become more resilient when disruptions occur.”
The project is funded by the United States Department of State and managed by the OAS Secretariat for Integral Development. It will assist small tourism enterprises in the Caribbean to overcome the various challenges that affect the ability of Governments and businesses alike to continue their business operations during and after catastrophic events in the Caribbean.
Participating countries set to benefit include: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
It will be carried out in a two-year period, with the primary aim being to reduce the severity, impact and duration of disruptions caused by a disaster on the operations of the small enterprises in the Caribbean.
“The Caribbean is among the most tourism-dependent regions in the world and there is no other region whose travel and tourism industry is as vulnerable to disasters as the Caribbean. It is undeniable that climate change presents an existential threat to small island developing states and low lying coastal areas, which include the countries of the Caribbean,” said Assistant Secretary General of the OAS, Nestor Mendez.
He also noted that “The OAS identified, among the main long-term needs of the region, the need for tourism-related disaster preparedness and crisis management, communications plans as well as methodologies to follow before and after a disaster.”
This 2nd Global Conference on Jobs and Inclusive Growth: Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs), is a direct response to the global conference on jobs and inclusive growth hosted in Jamaica in 2017, which brought to the fore many of the perennial challenges faced by SMTEs, including issues of access to credit, marketing, technology and business development.
The conference organisers therefore saw it prudent to have another event focused solely on SMTEs and best practices that have direct relevance to their development.
Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Bartlett receives TRAVVY Award for Global Tourism Innovation
Jamaica’s Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett was officially presented with 2019 TRAVVY Awards inaugural Chairman’s Award for Global Tourism Innovation for the development of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Center (GTRCMC) during the launch of the Center on January 30 at the Montego Bay Convention Centre. The award was presented by John Kirk, President and Editor-in-Chief of TravelPulse Canada.
During the official ceremony, which took place last Wednesday in New York, the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) also won the best Tourist Board in the Caribbean award, while Jamaica also won: Best Wedding Destination; Best Honeymoon Destination; and Best Culinary Destination, to thunderous applause from the packed hall of primarily American travel industry stakeholders.
Jamaica Prime Minister calls for greater collaboration for sustainable resilience in tourism sector
Prime Minister of Jamaica, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness says that greater effort has to be placed in strengthening linkages with key industries to create a more resilient and sustainable tourism industry.
“Crisis management requires coordination and a joint-up approach from the point of view of government and stakeholders. So it is important that we get all stakeholders on board. I am very pleased with the performance of the tourism industry but tourism does not exist in a vacuum by itself.eTN Chatroom: Discuss with readers from around the world:
It has to coordinate with all the agencies and so a part of the ability to be more resilient, and to adapt is how we connect and create linkages. Resilience depends on the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of National Security, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Education. Greater effort has to be placed in ensuring that, if we are going to be effective in managing crises, “said the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister made these remarks during the launch of the Global Resilience and Crisis Management Centre at the Montego Bay Convention Centre on January 30, 2019.
“Jamaica’s strategy is not just to ensure that Jamaica is safe, but to collaborate with all other countries…visitors to the island can rest assured that they are in a safe, secure and healthy environment,” said Prime Minister Holness.
The focus of the Centre will include: Risk Assessment, Mapping and Planning; Cyberspace Policy and Counter-Terrorism; Resilience-Related Research Collaborations; Development of Innovation Systems; Coordinating resilience policies with the government, Resource Mobilization, Capacity Building and Cross-Border Intelligence-sharing.
Speaking at the launch, Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett said, “There are four key deliverables that the Centre is focusing on at this time. One, is the establishment of an academic journal, which will be a compendium of scholarly publications, on various elements of the 5 segments of disruptions. The editorial board has already been established, headed by Professor Lee Miles of Bournemouth University, with the assistance of George Washington University. Within the next four months, that journal will be ready,” said the Minister.
The other deliverables include: a compendium of best practices/ a blueprint for resilience; a resilience barometer to measure the resilience in countries and provide benchmarks to guide countries; and to establish an academic chair at the University of West Indies for innovation and resilience.
“I am pleased to announce that we have two proposals before us for the funding of that Chair. One is from Spain and the other is from Jamaica. We are still looking because part of what we must have are the resources to manage the facilities over time,” said the Minister.
The Centre which is housed at the University of the West Indies, will be staffed by local, regional and internationally recognized experts and professionals in the fields of climate management, project management, tourism management, tourism risk management, tourism crisis management, communication management, tourism marketing and branding as well as monitoring and evaluation.
“We are looking forward to the work that is going to be done and we want to work closely with the University of the West Indies because we believe it will be beneficial for us to understand how the rest of Government can benefit from the lessons that you can teach us, to ensure that we are resilient and can manage crises,” said the Prime Minister.
The Centre will also provide research fellowship opportunities for individuals seeking to either expand their knowledge or, gain experience in tourism resilience and crisis management, through postdoctoral research, and internships for undergraduate and graduate students in fields of study related to tourism resilience and crisis management.