GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett delivered a keynote address today, October 9, at the State of the Tourism Industry Conference (SOTIC) in Guyana, calling for a permanent Caribbean Tourism Resilience Fund to protect tourism-dependent economies against hurricanes, climate disruption and financial shocks.
Bartlett proposed a regional financing mechanism involving governments, tourism businesses, development banks, insurers and international investors. The fund would support disaster preparedness, emergency liquidity, tourism workers, small businesses, coastal protection and technology.
He also suggested exploring modest visitor-linked contributions to help finance resilience and urged the Caribbean to expand investment partnerships with Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Gulf.
The proposal remains a policy initiative rather than an established, funded institution. Questions about governance, financial commitments and implementation have yet to be resolved.
Bartlett Wants Caribbean Tourism to Finance Resilience Before the Next DisasterJamaica’s Minister of Tourism, the Hon. Edmund Bartlett, used his keynote address at SOTIC 2026 in Guyana to call for a fundamental change in how Caribbean nations finance tourism development and prepare for natural disasters.
Speaking under the theme Protecting Caribbean Tourism: Financing Resilience, Sustainability and a Future We Control, Bartlett argued that Caribbean governments must stop relying primarily on post-disaster reconstruction financing and instead establish a permanent mechanism to reduce vulnerability before crises occur.
“Hope is not a financing instrument. Borrowing after every disaster is not a resilience strategy,” Bartlett told delegates.
His proposal would establish a Caribbean Tourism Resilience Fund designed to protect the broader tourism economy, including hotels, airlines, airports, tourism workers, small businesses, agricultural suppliers, local communities and natural ecosystems.
Hurricane Melissa: A Warning for the Entire Caribbean
Bartlett identified Hurricane Melissa as a defining moment in Jamaica’s tourism resilience strategy.
According to figures cited in his keynote, the hurricane caused approximately US$12.2 billion in damage and losses, equivalent to 56.7% of Jamaica’s 2024 GDP.
While Jamaica demonstrated its ability to reopen tourism facilities and restore essential services, Bartlett warned that recovery alone was no longer sufficient.
The region must reduce the financial consequences of future disasters rather than repeatedly rebuilding damaged infrastructure.
He pointed to Hurricane Maria in Dominica, Hurricane Dorian in The Bahamas and Hurricane Ivan in Grenada as examples of disasters whose economic consequences extended far beyond tourism facilities.
Six Priorities for a Caribbean Tourism Resilience Fund
Bartlett outlined six proposed investment windows that would address both immediate disaster risks and long-term economic sustainability.
The first would finance renewable energy, water security, resilient buildings and coastal protection.
The second would provide rapid emergency liquidity following disasters, with funds released when predetermined thresholds are reached.
A third would protect tourism workers whose employment and livelihoods are disrupted.
The fourth would support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, including guesthouses, transportation providers, restaurants, farmers and community tourism businesses.
The fifth would finance the protection of natural assets, including beaches, coral reefs, mangroves and marine ecosystems.
The sixth would invest in technology, artificial intelligence, climate modelling, early-warning systems and tourism resilience research.
The proposed fund would therefore serve as both a disaster-preparedness mechanism and a long-term development financing platform.
Could a Small Visitor Contribution Generate Millions?
One of Bartlett’s more significant suggestions involves examining a modest financial contribution linked to visitor activity across the Caribbean.
The minister argued that even relatively small contributions, collected across millions of visitors, could generate substantial capital for resilience investments.
With approximately 35 million international stay-over visitors reported for the Caribbean in 2025, a hypothetical US$5 contribution per visitor would generate US$175 million annually before administrative costs or exemptions.
Bartlett did not announce an approved regional visitor tax or a specific contribution amount.
Implementing such a mechanism would require agreements among participating governments and tourism stakeholders, including decisions about collection, allocation, oversight and competitiveness.
It would also raise the question of whether tourism-dependent countries should contribute equally or according to their economic size and exposure to disasters.
Africa, Asia and Latin America Could Become More Important Partners
Bartlett also called for a more diversified approach to tourism investment and development cooperation.
While acknowledging the continuing importance of North America and Europe, he argued that Caribbean resilience should not depend on a limited group of traditional partners.
He identified Africa, Latin America, India, the Gulf and Asia as potential sources of investment, technology, market access and development cooperation.
Bartlett specifically referenced Afreximbank, CAF and the Caribbean Development Bank as institutions that could contribute to a broader regional financing architecture.
He cited CAF’s US$2.5 billion commitment through 2030 to the sustainable blue economy, including initiatives relevant to coastal tourism and environmental protection.
However, the keynote did not establish that any of these institutions had formally committed money to the proposed Tourism Resilience Fund.
Tourism 3.0: More Tourism Money Must Stay in the Caribbean
The minister linked his proposal to Jamaica’s Tourism 3.0 framework, which emphasizes stronger connections between tourism growth and domestic economic development.
Bartlett argued that tourism resilience must include protecting local suppliers, farmers, entrepreneurs and communities, rather than focusing exclusively on hotel occupancy and visitor arrivals.
His Local First policy direction seeks to strengthen the domestic tourism supply chain and increase the economic value retained in Jamaica.
The same principle, he suggested, could be applied throughout the Caribbean.
A regional resilience fund could provide an opportunity to support smaller businesses that frequently struggle to obtain insurance, affordable financing and emergency assistance.
GTRCMC Could Provide the Research and Intelligence
Bartlett also proposed a stronger role for the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC), which he founded and co-chairs.
The centre could help develop a regional tourism resilience observatory, mapping exposure to hurricanes, coastal erosion, infrastructure failures and other threats.
Artificial intelligence, satellite information and predictive analytics could support more informed decisions about where resilience investments are most urgently needed.
Such a system could provide development banks, governments and investors with a shared evidence base for allocating resources.
The Missing Pieces: Funding, Governance and Accountability
Although Bartlett presented an extensive vision for the proposed fund, significant implementation questions remain.
No confirmed capitalization target, binding financing commitments or operational launch date were identified in the supplied keynote.
It also remains unclear which institution would administer the fund, how participating countries would be represented, and whether private tourism businesses could receive financing directly.
Existing regional disaster insurance and climate-finance mechanisms would also need to be considered to avoid duplication.
These issues will be central to determining whether the proposal can move from a ministerial keynote into a functioning regional financing system.
A New Direction for Caribbean Tourism?
According to the World Travel & Tourism Council figures cited by Bartlett, travel and tourism contributed approximately US$81.4 billion to the Caribbean economy in 2024, representing 17.6% of regional GDP.
For 2025, the contribution was projected to reach approximately US$86 billion, supporting more than three million jobs.
These figures demonstrate why tourism resilience is increasingly being discussed as an economic development issue rather than simply an emergency response priority.
Bartlett’s message at SOTIC in Guyana was that Caribbean governments and the tourism industry must take greater responsibility for protecting the economic foundations of their destinations.
Whether the proposed fund receives support from regional governments, financial institutions and the private sector will determine its future.
For now, Bartlett has placed a concrete financing concept on the regional tourism policy agenda, along with a challenge to move from declarations to implementation.
“Let us finance resilience before we finance reconstruction,” he said.
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