Opportunities for Tourism Post COVID-19

Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, says a number of new opportunities will be created for stakeholders in the tourism industry when the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic ends.

He cited technology as one of the tools that will “play a new and exciting and far-reaching role in the new tourism that is going to emerge.”

“What the current practices are showing us is that with technology, we can achieve a lot of productivity at home, so a new norm is emerging in terms of that and how we could utilise technology to serve the industry from anywhere,” he said while addressing a digital media briefing on Thursday (April 9).

Minister Bartlett noted that the use of technology will create greater opportunities especially for small farmers, who are “learning how to connect more with the industry”. 

“They are now using technology and for the first time, appreciating that they can now find out what the goods are that the industry needs so they can go to their farms and produce,” he said.

Additionally, the Tourism Minister noted that embracing technology can enhance service delivery by ground transportation providers.

“They are now recognising the importance of geo-positioning and how to use technology to be able to determine where they are going, who their passengers are and to give a greater sense of security to the visitor as to the quality of the service that is being provided by our ground transportation,” he said.

Mr. Bartlett noted that tourism workers can also take part in the online training programme being offered by the Jamaica Centre for Tourism Innovation to better equip themselves to adapt to the post COVID-19 workplace environment.

“That offers another level of opportunity for our workers to scale up their skills and to be able to come back with a good sense of how agile they can become in the workplace and indeed what the new workplace is going to look like,” he said.

He noted as well that prospects exist for industry players who innovate by adding value to the products and services being offered.