Plans to repeal and replace the Tourism Act
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WESTERN BUREAU:
Jamaica’s tourism sector could soon undergo its biggest legislative overhaul in decades, with Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett announcing plans to repeal and replace the Tourism Act as part of a sweeping restructuring of the industry.
The announcement marks the most significant proposed change to the sector since the Tourism Act was established 72 years ago under the framework that created the Jamaica Tourist Board.
Speaking at the Tourism Enhancement Fund’s Speed Networking event at the Montego Bay Convention Centre on Thursday, Bartlett said the move forms part of a wider “Tourism 3.0” strategy aimed at ensuring that Jamaicans retain a greater share of the wealth generated by the island’s tourism industry.
“Tourism must be first for the people of Jamaica and then for our guests that we bring internationally to our shores,” Bartlett said.
He added that the Government intends to replace the current legislation with a new Tourism Authority Act that reflects the realities of a modern tourism industry and strengthens linkages with local suppliers, manufacturers, creatives, and entrepreneurs.
“Since then, we have morphed into a tourism ministry with agencies, but we still have the Tourist Board Act,” Bartlett said. “So the first part of reimagining and getting Tourism 3.0 is a repealing of that act, a revision of that act, and the creation of a Tourism Authority Act.”
The tourism minister argued that Jamaica has failed to adequately build local production capacity alongside the rapid expansion of the tourism sector, resulting in the country importing more than two-thirds of the goods and services needed by the industry.
“We have been regarded as a country of samples. Samples cannot satisfy the needs of tourism,” he said. “We need sufficiency of supplies. We need reliability of supplies.”
Bartlett said the Government is now exploring legislative, fiscal, and financing mechanisms to enable Jamaicans to supply more of the tourism sector’s needs and increase the retention of tourism earnings within the local economy.
“The wealth of tourism is in the supply side,” he said. “The dollar that the plane brings when it lands does not go back on the next flight, but stays here in Jamaica.”
He disclosed that discussions are already under way with banks and regional stakeholders regarding the creation of special financing arrangements tailored specifically for tourism-related businesses and suppliers.
Bartlett also revealed that the Inter-American Development Bank had agreed to fund a regional study examining tourism demand- and- supply patterns across the Caribbean.
Support for the proposed overhaul came from Kathryn Silvera, president of the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association, who argued that the revised legislation should contain stronger provisions to ensure more local purchasing within the tourism sector.
“I think that we would like to see that [that] act would have a little bit more teeth in it,” Silvera said.
“Sometimes words aren’t sufficient,” she added, suggesting that incentives granted to tourism entities should be tied to the level of goods and services purchased locally.
Silvera said manufacturers must also play their part by improving production capacity and becoming more transparent with industry data.
“When you hear about Tourism 3.0, we have to be part of that by playing our part as well,” she said.
Bartlett said the success of Tourism 3.0 will depend on collaboration across multiple ministries, including agriculture, manufacturing, health, education, national security, and local government.
“There is no tourism without everyone,” he said.