TOURISM Minister Edmund Bartlett says that significant developments in the tourism industry since he opened the 2022/23 Sectoral Debate in April augurs well for the post-COVID-19 development of the industry.

However, the minister admitted that while the recovery of the industry was imminent, it is obvious that unscrupulous people have been fleecing workers in the sector of up to $200,000 per person seeking to have their names listed for better paying jobs abroad.

“While we are trying to avoid any disruption in the current tourism labour market arrangement by using the south coast as the catchment area, we are hearing that there are unscrupulous people who are trying to fleece the poor people by collecting money from to have their names written down,” he told the House of Representatives, as he closed the two-month-long debate on Tuesday.

“It is a travesty that we as a country can’t get to benefit from each other without finding a way to fleece each other. I really want to say to you that it pains my heart greatly. We are going to make it known and besides we are going to advise the cruise,” he said.

There is said to be a high demand for Jamaican cruise ship employees, globally. But, Bartlett believes that the sector has a responsibility to protect them from being “scammed” in the process.

A Disaster Risk Management (DRM) plan has been developed by the ministry to guide the staff and management of tourism businesses, as the ministry continues towards developing and implementing a comprehensive strategy for tourism resilience.

According to the minister, excellent signs of recovery are visible as the tourism industry continues to drive Jamaica’s post-COVID-19 economic recovery.

He noted that the Planning Institute of Jamaica’s (PIOJ) latest economic performance update for January to March 2022 indicated that the “Real Value Added for Hotels & Restaurants increased by an estimated 105.7 per cent.”

“The PIOJ also outlined that ‘the industry continues to benefit from increased travel, in light of the relaxation of previously implemented COVID-19 containment measures,” he noted.

Preliminary data revealed that stopover arrivals increased by 230.1 per cent to 475,805 visitors, and cruise passenger arrivals totalled 99,798 when compared to the same period last year.

“Based on PIOJ data for January to February 2022, total visitor expenditure increased to US$485.6 million, when compared to US$169.2 million in the corresponding period in 2021,” he pointed out.

He said that laying out the groundwork needed to ensure that this kind of robust recovery continues is the idea behind the recent highly successful phase of a global market blitz, where he led a high-level tourism team to the United Kingdom, the United States and, eventually, Dubai to explore investment and airlift opportunities and bolster tourism travel to Jamaica.