MONTEGO BAY, St James — Reserving more executive positions for local tourism workers and improving linkages were among suggestions made by young Jamaicans who were asked for solutions on how to retain a larger share of earnings from the sector.

“Especially where we look at what the managerial roles look like in tourism right now, we have to consider our own people as well so that they can be able to climb up the ladder. A lot of jobs are existing in tourism, but we really need to make sure that a lot of the higher income jobs are also being occupied by locals and Jamaicans,” Katrina Chin, Tourism Society president at The University of the West Indies, told the Jamaica Observer.

She also spoke of the need to improve the quality of jobs available.

“I spoke in Youth Parliament last year regarding underemployment. We have a lot of jobs. More people are being employed, but what are they being employed to do, that is a bigger question,” Chin added.

She was one of four panellists participating in Wednesday’s Youth Panel Discussion at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James.

Moderated by children’s book author Amashika Lorne, the discussion on ‘Youth as Catalysts for Change’ formed part of Tourism Youth Forum 2024 which was among planned activities for Tourism Week. The celebrations are being observed under the theme ‘Tourism and Peace: Out of Many, One Love’.

Panellist and prime minister awardee 2024 Odane Brooks also shared his views.

“If we’re going to maintain and retain people here in Jamaica, we must be able to use the industries locally to give opportunities for our people. So whilst the tourism sector is doing well, we have to continue to see how we can retain more of the earnings so persons in local communities can benefit and see the benefit of the industry,” he told the
Observer.

Brooks also identified holes that need to be plugged to retain tourism earnings.

“A lot of it leaks out through imports that the hotels might be doing. So we need to see greater linkages with sectors like agriculture. So the farmers in St Elizabeth must have a direct line to the tourism sector where they can filter their produce into hotels,” Brooks suggested.

“Construction, also advertising, a lot of the tourism dollar leaks out to advertising. So we need to build, develop the local capacity, so we are able to harness what is produced locally to reduce the leakage,” he added.

Chin shared similar views.

“Increasing our linkages as well so that we’re able to tap into other sectors and be able to bring those in as well. We talked about it. Odane Brooks spoke to where we need to have economics of scale, where we can reduce the price of our own goods. But with that also starts with us improving the linkages and the connections between other industries so that other people can make money and be a part of tourism as well,” Chin said.

For his part, junior tourism minister 2024/2025 Taj Melbourne concurred with Chin and Brooks, adding that earnings retained in the sector should go towards developing tourism awareness initiatives in schools.

“From my perspective — although I don’t have much knowledge — I would say that based on what I’ve seen with the tourism industry, it is true what they’re saying. And I believe that the more earnings they retain is the best we can develop inside of our country, and we can put initiatives forward in making sure that each year when we get a bigger earning we get a bigger percentage of it, and we keep it and we develop our tourism industry, especially for youth,” he said.

“Part of that should go towards tourism awareness in schools. We don’t really have much of that in school, other than the [Tourism Action Club] TAC Club that we have,” he added.

“In his message marking the start of the week’s celebrations on September 22, during a thanksgiving service at Family Church on the Rock Montego Bay, Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said last year Jamaica welcomed a record-breaking 4.29 million visitors and generated US$4.38 billion in earnings.

He stressed that, based on preliminary figures, since the start of 2024, Jamaica has welcomed about three million stopover and cruise visitors to the island, earning approximately US$3 billion.”

Students from more than 20 educational institutions participated in the Tourism Youth Forum 2024 on Wednesday.

Tourism Week celebrations continued with a gastronomy showcase at the Falmouth Artisan Village on Thursday. The week will close with the Out of Many, One Love concert at Devon House on Friday.