Edmund Bartlett highlighted the importance of Jamaica's Tourism Strategy and Action Plan (TSAP) in building stakeholders' capacity to respond to the tourism industry's new landscape.

The TSAP, being implemented through a partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), aims to boost socio-economic development and investment, enhance the local tourism industry's resilience to climate change, and reduce its contribution to climate change.

It also aims to diversify Jamaica's inbound tourism and promote knowledge-based and technology-enabled development within the industry.

Mr. Bartlett also emphasized the TSAP's significance in making tourism more inclusive and a greater driver of economic growth and development in Jamaica.

"So, the strategies should not only focus on physical areas but should also begin with human capital. The most important element in our tourism realization is people. Jamaica's wealth is not in minerals, as you know; but what we really have are our people, and our people are the wealth of this country," said the Minister.

"And so, our strategy has to strongly focus on building, training, building intellectual capacity, building innovative capacities, building creative capacities, [and] building a new sense of how people can convert knowledge into material goods and services that will have a value and a price," Mr. Bartlett added.

Tourism Minister, the Honorable Edmund Bartlett, has expressed that, in the development of Jamaica's new Tourism Strategy and Action Plan, greater emphasis should be placed on strengthening links with other sectors and preventing economic leaks.

These statements were made during the successful culmination of a series of tourism strategy consultation workshops held across the island, conducted in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The final event took place with stakeholders from the Kingston and St. Andrew destination area.

The Tourism Minister highlighted that the strategy should focus on strengthening links between tourism and other productive sectors, such as agriculture and manufacturing, to prevent economic leaks, as the sector prepares to meet the sustained and increasing demand from visitors in the coming years.

The workshops, which have gathered valuable insights from various stakeholders in Jamaica's seven destination areas, are part of the Ministry's drive to develop a comprehensive new strategy and action plan for the country's vital tourism industry.

"The main idea behind these strategic development workshops is to respond to innovation and the changing realities of one of the most dynamic industries on planet Earth."