Jamaican tourism minister Edmund Bartlett has renewed his call for a global tourism resilience fund, saying it would be a huge boost for those who see their tourism-dependent livelihoods disrupted.
Bartlett, speaking at Wednesday’s Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre Symposium in Toronto, has been championing such a fund and has also repeatedly called for the tourism industry to be better prepared to cope with crises, such as those caused by extreme weather.
“No destination should have to face the next crisis alone…” Bartlett told his audience at Toronto’s George Brown Polytechnic, which has been assisting the centre with its work. “With time and effort we recover but with support and guidance we thrive … We must move from reaction to anticipation.”
Bartlett said those with a stake in the tourism industry — such as governments, airlines, hotel companies and cruise lines — should help fund the tourism resilience fund.
Jamaica’s minister of tourism added that current wars take their toll on tourism, among other things leading to hikes in aviation costs and forcing airlines to adjust routes. “A destination does not have to be struck by a missile to be wounded by war.”
He also noted that this country is struggling with wildfires, with many saying those fires are fueled by increasingly extreme weather.
“Vulnerability (to disruptions caused by the likes of climate change) is now a shared human condition,” Bartlett added.
Bartlett is a staunch defender of tourism, telling his audience that it’s the “fastest way to transfer wealth from the rich to the poor” and also labelled it “an instrument of peace” that “enables a connectivity of people.”
He said a destination’s tourism recovery from a crisis shouldn’t just be measured by whether hotels have reopened but by whether tour guides, farmers who make a living by selling food to tourism businesses and others have regained their incomes. “We cannot only be takers in tourism. We have to be makers.”
Bartlett has been an outspoken advocate of the need for the tourism industry to be prepared for crises, with the Global Tourism Resilience Centre having opened in the Jamaican capital of Kingston under his watch.
“Small states need not have small ideas,” said Bartlett, who applauded the United Nations for declaring Feb. 17 Global Tourism Resilience Day.
He also praised his homeland’s recovery from October’s punishing Hurricane Melissa, saying it “mobilized rapidly,” enabling its tourism industry to reopen in mid-December. “Jamaica demonstrated an extraordinary capacity to recover.”
Meanwhile, Caribbean Tourism Organization secretary-general Dona Regis-Prosper said tourism should no longer be gauged simply by the number of visitors that arrive, with shifting views moving “from volume to value.”
She added the industry is moving beyond serving tourists to now hosting them.
