Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett addressed CTO delegates, CHTA and IDB representatives at the official launch of the Supply Side initiative in New York on Thursday June 4, 2026<\/p>\n
KINGSTON, Jamaica\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Against the backdrop of smoke-filled Canadian skies and a global economy in flux, Jamaica\u2019s Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, recently declared that the world has entered \u201cthe Age of Resilience\u201d \u2013 and said the survival of tourism now depends on financing people, not just properties.<\/p>\n
Addressing the Canadian-Caribbean Tourism Resilience Symposium in Toronto, Canada against the backdrop of huge climate change induced forest fires raging in that country, Bartlett said climate disasters, geopolitical conflict, cyber threats and artificial intelligence are no longer arriving one at a time, they are converging.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fires in Canada are not only a Canadian story. They are a mirror held up to the world,\u201d Bartlett told diplomats, industry leaders and diaspora representatives. \u201cThey tell us that the world has changed. Not temporarily, not superficially, fundamentally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bartlett argued that each age rewards a different virtue. The Industrial Age rewarded production. The Information Age rewarded connectivity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Age of Resilience will reward adaptive capacity: the ability to anticipate disruption, absorb shocks, reorganise intelligently and transform before vulnerability becomes collapse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He pointed to Canada\u2019s 2024 Jasper wildfire, which forced 20,000 evacuations and crippled the regional visitor economy, as evidence that resilience is about livelihoods, not just landmarks.<\/p>\n
\u201cA destination is not resilient merely because its iconic assets survive. A destination is resilient when its people can continue to live, work, create and hope,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor policy, that means land management, emergency communications, insurance, workforce protection and tourism planning can no longer sit in separate government silos\u201d.<\/p>\n
Bartlett further observed that \u201cpeace is productive infrastructure.\u201d Citing UN Tourism data showing a sharp drop in Middle East arrivals in the first quarter of 2026, he said war wounds tourism even when missiles don\u2019t land. Airspace closures, travel advisories, higher insurance premiums and cancelled conventions all send \u201ceconomic echoes\u201d through the sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cTourism is one of humanity\u2019s quietest peace institutions. It turns strangers into guests,\u201d Bartlett said. \u201cA peaceful tourism corridor is not merely a route for aircraft and visitors. It is a corridor through which empathy, commerce and mutual dependence can travel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bartlett noted that AI can shift tourism from reactive to anticipatory resilience \u2013 forecasting wildfires, mapping vulnerable assets, and warning when small businesses are about to fail. Canada is already using AI, satellites and drones in wildfire response. But he issued a warning: \u201ctechnology must not deepen inequality\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWill AI strengthen only the largest corporations, or empower the small entrepreneur? Will it widen the distance between data-rich destinations and data-poor communities?\u201d, he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cAI should amplify human capability, not erase human dignity,\u201d Bartlett declared. He called for \u201cAI sovereignty\u201d for small states, shared data standards, and public-interest digital infrastructure so that communities are not reduced to data suppliers.<\/p>\n
Drawing from Jamaica\u2019s own experience with Hurricane Melissa in October 2025, Bartlett said the true measure of recovery is not when hotels reopen, but when the wider tourism ecosystem survives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe craft vendor whose inventory was destroyed. The taxi operator whose vehicle was damaged. The farmer whose crops had been contracted into the tourism value chain\u2026 These are not peripheral actors. They are the living infrastructure of tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMSMEs are frequently called the backbone of tourism. I believe they are its soul,\u201d he said. \u201cFinancing MSMEs is therefore not charity. It is productive investment, social protection and regional development combined.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the centerpiece of Bartlett\u2019s address was a renewed call for a permanent, professionally governed \u201cGlobal Tourism Resilience Fund\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the fund must finance the full cycle: preparedness, protection during crisis, recovery, and transformation. Critically, it must include a dedicated \u201cMSME Resilience Window\u201d that accepts employment, community trust and recovery plans as forms of collateral. \u201cNot another temporary relief facility. Not another declaration whose ambition exceeds its financing,\u201d Bartlett said.<\/p>\n
He proposed that Canada and Jamaica co-lead the effort through:<\/p>\n
A Canada-Caribbean Working Group on Resilience Finance
\nNew insurance and blended-finance instruments for MSMEs
\nAn AI and Tourism Resilience Innovation Lab linked to the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre, GTRCMC<\/p>\n
The GTRCMC, headquartered in Jamaica and co-chaired by Bartlett, will be expanded into a \u201cglobal resilience intelligence platform\u201d connecting climate science, economics, AI and crisis management. Jamaica\u2019s leadership also helped secure the UN\u2019s designation of February 17 as Global Tourism Resilience Day.<\/p>\n
Bartlett closed with a metaphor of renewal: \u201cA forest teaches that destruction is not the final word. Beneath the ash, seeds wait, roots endure and renewal begins before it becomes visible. So it is with nations. So it is with communities. So it is with tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet this symposium mark the moment when peace was recognised as tourism infrastructure; when AI was directed toward human flourishing; and when MSMEs were placed at the centre of global tourism policy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett addressed CTO delegates, CHTA and IDB representatives at the official launch of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":["post-808532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}