TOKYO, Japan — As destinations worldwide continue their recovery efforts from the impact of COVID-19, Minister of Tourism for Jamaica, Edmund Bartlett, says a Global Tourism Resilience fund is needed now more than ever.

Speaking at the 5th Tourism Expo Japan (TEJ) Ministerial Roundtable in Tokyo on Thursday, Bartlett made an urgent appeal for the creation of a Global Resilience Fund especially for small tourism-dependent countries.

The TEJ Ministerial Roundtable was executed in conjunction with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, under the theme, ‘Tackling Climate Change; Tourism Stakeholders’ Endeavors Sub Theme: Coexisting with Covid in the Post-Pandemic World; Solutions for the New Tourism Industry’.

Tourism minsters and commissioners from eight countries and top executives from four international tourism organisations participated.

“As destinations continue to find strategies to fully recover from the pandemic, there is a need for a strengthening of economic capacity to help them rebuild and recover even better. This economic support is needed even more now as the pandemic has brought with it, its own set of disruptions that may have a more negative impact than the pandemic itself,” said Bartlett.

The fund would target destinations that are recognised as facing high vulnerability but have insufficient financial capacity to prepare for and recover quickly from disruptions. The fund would therefore be designed to help to build capacity to respond to disruptive threats to the economic sustainability of tourism-dependent countries.

“My call for the establishment of this Global Tourism Resilience Fund is critical as tourism remains one of the most vulnerable industries that is affected significantly by disruptions such as pandemics and climate events such as hurricanes,” added Bartlett.

The event formed part of Tourism EXPO Japan, one of the world’s largest Travel Trade Exhibitions that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors.