Jamaica crafting new tourism strategy with IDB support

 

Jamaica is crafting a new tourism strategy.

 

The government has received support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to help craft a sustainable way forward for the country's highest foreign exchange earner.

 

Consultations have been taking place across the island.

 

Anton Edmunds, IDB Representative to Jamaica, says the agency is providing multi-dimensional support in the process. 

 

"We enlisted and supervised a cadre of specialised firms and consultants to forge an in-depth diagnostic about the status of the tourism industry in Jamaica, with the results of these efforts informing the design of an updated and renewed Jamaica tourism strategy."

 

The move, he said, is significant for the IDB as it highlights the bank's "dedication to crafting a resilient and forward thinking sustainable tourism plan for Jamaica, aligned with our overarching goal and mandate, championing sustainable development that tangibly improves lives".

 

Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett said the new direction will take Jamaica into the evolving future of tourism. 

 

"So it took the world 150 years to see the first billion tourists travelling across the world. Now it is anticipated that in the next 25 years 1.4 billion more tourists will be travelling the world. I gave you those backgrounds to contextualise the strategy arrangements that now must be developed and the kind of thinking that must go into the new architecture that Jamaica's tourism must have," he said.