Tourism Minister says SMTE Conference was a Success

Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, said the recently held global conference on small and medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs) was a success.

The conference, which was held on January 29 at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St. James was a collaboration between the Government and the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

It sought to develop the capacity of SMTEs to deliver on the demand of the sector and generate more economic growth.

“It was successful based on the outcomes. We have a blueprint for SMTE development. The ‘little man’ also benefited because he was there, and the funding agencies that he requires to provide capital for development were also there,” the Minister told JIS News.

“We were able to ensure that the connectivity was there,” he continued.

During the conference, the Organization of American States (OAS) committed a total of US$500,000 to building the resilience of Caribbean SMTEs to deal with disasters.

The project, which is being executed over two years through funding from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), is managed by the OAS Secretariat for Integral Development.

Its overarching aim is to reduce the severity, impact and duration of disruptions caused by a disaster on the operations of SMTEs in the Caribbean.

The project will help to identify and address the macro (national) and micro (corporate)-level challenges that affect business continuity during and after catastrophic events, as well as to build the capacity of owners, operators and staff of SMTEs to prepare, execute, review, test and update business continuity/multi-hazard contingency plans.