State nke Jamaica n'ime Caribbean Tourism na ụzọ aga n'ihu

1. Bartlett gave an overview of the challenges of the Jamaica travel and tourism industry in a global concept.
2. This eye-opening speech is copied here as a transcript and is valid beyond the Jamaica scenario.
3. Read in its entirety – or listen to – this keynote address the Minister made at JMMB’s Thought Leadership webinar.

---

SALUTATIONS

The evolution of the tourism industry since the 1950s can be best described as dichotomous as this segment of the global economy simultaneously exemplifies resilience and vulnerability; with both manifesting at regular intervals with equal intensity.

Generally, the picture that emerges of international tourism over the past several decades has been one of rapid and consistent growth and far-reaching socio-economic impact. International arrivals grew from 25 million in the 1950s to 1.5 billion in 2019, constituting a 56-fold increase.

As it continues to rapidly expand and diversify, the impact of international tourism has stretched to all regions of the world and the sector is among the world’s leading catalysts of job creation, poverty reduction, export trade and foreign revenue generation.  Within the last five (pre-COVID) years, the labor-intensive tourism sector was responsible for 1 in every 5 jobs created. 

In 2019, the sector supported 330 million jobs or 1 in 10 jobs globally. In 2019, tourism also contributed US $8.9 trillion to global GDP or 10.3 % of GDP; US $1.7 trillion in visitors exports amounting to 6.8 % of total exports; 28.3 % of global services exports and US $ 948 billion in capital investment or 4.3 % of total investment.

The socio-economic impact of tourism considerably varies across regions with the small undiversified economies of the Pacific, The Indian Ocean and the Caribbean being among the world’s most tourism-dependent on average. 

Based on the findings of the 2021 Tourism Dependency Index generated by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), the Caribbean ranks as the most tourism-dependent region in the world. The Index found that almost a dozen Caribbean countries including Jamaica were ranked among the top 20 most tourism-dependent countries in the world with dozens of other Latin American and Caribbean economies rounding off the top 100. 

Further analysis of the WTTC’s 2020 Economic Impact Report showed that, in the pre-crisis period, travel and tourism in the Caribbean region contributed: USD 58.9 billion to GDP (14 % of total GDP); 2.8 million jobs (equivalent to 15.2 % of total employment) and USD 35.7 billion in visitors’ spending (equivalent to 20 % of total exports).

Against the backdrop that international tourism growth outpaced global economic growth in 2019, the preliminary forecast was for a modest growth rate of 3 to 4 % in 2020. This was obviously before the global spread of the novel coronavirus, beginning in March 2020, which eventually forced the closure of borders, the grounding of flights and the suspension of all international travel from April through to June 2020.