Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett
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By Halshane Burke
Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett is encouraging young entrepreneurs and artisans to focus on supplying authentic Jamaican products to the tourism market.
Mr. Bartlett says the artisan villages to be developed at the ports of entry will provide a unique experience for visitors to the island.
He says travellers are desiring to immerse themselves in the local way of life and small businesses can capitalise on this by offering uniquely Jamaican products.
"The SMTEs are indispensable to the tourism industry. Eighty per cent of tourism consists of small, micro and medium enterprises. But the asymmetry in all of that is that only 20% of the returns from tourism goes to this 80 per cent. So something is wrong with that picture," he argued.
"This is why I mentioned to you the three pillars that we are using to correct that imbalance to build your capacity to develop more ideas, to be able to bring more products to business; and then to fund your capacity now, increase the number and the higher quality and finally, we'll provide a market for you so that you can get the price you want."
Mr. Bartlett was addressing the graduation ceremony of the Central Jamaica Social Development Initiative (CJSDI) where 55 young entrepreneurs graduated following an intensive four-month long entrepreneurship programme.
CJSDI is a non-governmental organisation that partners with government agencies such as RADA, HEART/NSTA Trust and the Jamaica Business Development Centre to provide training and certification for beneficiaries.
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