Youth creativity tagged as key to shaping future of tourism

Western Bureau:

Young Jamaicans are being urged to harness their creative ideas so that they can develop the skills needed to shape the future of Jamaica’s tourism.

Edmund Bartlett, minister of tourism, noted last Thursday that students play a crucial role in generating the ideas that will drive the next phase of tourism development.

Bartlett was speaking at the Jamaica Youth Tourism Summit & Artisan Experience, which was hosted by the western campus of The University of the West Indies, and held under the theme, ‘Jamaica Wi Cyaa Dun: Resilient Tourism Roots’.

Now in its third staging, the summit is a youth-focused seminar and interactive showcase forming a part of the students’ final assessment for the events management course.

The initiative aims to educate, inspire, and connect secondary and tertiary-level students with key stakeholders in Jamaica’s tourist industry, while highlighting the critical role of local artisans, entrepreneurs, and creative enterprises within the tourism value chain.

“You are the real generators of new, fresh ideas and on you relies the future of the world. And it is your own ideas and creativity that will form the basis of who will be on planet Earth in the future,” said Bartlett to the more than 200 participants drawn from secondary and tertiary institutions in western Jamaica.

According to Bartlett, tourism is among the most dynamic global industries, largely because it is built on experiences rather than tangible goods.

“Tourism is perhaps the most creative of all industries because it is founded on experiences, and experiences are not necessarily material,” he said, in noting that tourism invites people to travel in search of those experiences, creating economic opportunities for destinations that can deliver them.

“For us in tourism, what we do is market those experiences. We invite the world to come and consume them, and in doing so, they transfer wealth,” he said.

Bartlett also highlighted the fact that Jamaica’s tourist industry had delivered significant economic benefits.

“At our best point, just before Hurricane Melissa slowed our growth trajectory, we welcomed 4.3 million visitors who spent US$4.2 billion. That translated into 175,000 jobs for Jamaicans,” he said.

Bartlett further stressed that tourism also creates space for entrepreneurship and small business development, noting that simple ideas can generate income for ordinary Jamaicans.

“Tourism is the only industry that brings together the varied creative and other skills of ordinary people, and that’s why it is so powerful,” he said.

Nonetheless, Bartlett cautioned that Jamaica must strengthen its ability to capture more of the wealth generated by the sector by expanding the local supply of goods and services.

“Capacity has to be built. We must create the ability to absorb that wealth, or it will go back on the planes and cruise ships that brought it,” he said.

He also pointed to efforts to professionalise the sector through training and certification initiatives led by the Jamaica Centre of Tourism Innovation (JCTI).

“We established the JCTI in 2017, and since then thousands of workers across the industry have been certified,” he said, in encouraging young people to view tourism as an industry rich with opportunities for creativity, entrepreneurship, and professional growth.

albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com