Tourism Providers to Benefit from $500-Million Loan Facility

The Tourism Ministry is partnering with the National Export-Import Bank to provide a $500-million loan facility for the sector’s small and medium-size goods and service providers.

Portfolio Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, said that negotiations are being finalised for the establishment of the facility, through which persons in select sectors will be able to access up to $25 million.

He was speaking with JIS News following a linkages network strategy session at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston, on Wednesday (August 10).

Loans will be offered to providers in the subsectors of health and wellness, knowledge, shopping, and sport and entertainment, which are being given focus as part of the drive to grow tourism.

The objective is to increase the production of goods and services locally for the tourism sector.

The EXIM Bank’s provision will complement a $100-million arrangement already in place with JN Small Business Loans Limited for industry stakeholders.

Mr. Bartlett said the Ministry’s decision to negotiate additional funding support was consistent with “our interest to enable the small entrepreneurs to become big providers of goods within the industry”.

He contended that the overall benefits of the sector will only materialise “when the small man in the community feels that he is a part of the process”.

“So, what we are trying to do is to enable local entrepreneurship at the broadest level, to build out their capacities to supply on the demands of the industry,” Mr. Bartlett said.