Barlett announces ministry will offer six-month moratorium

Monday, April 20, 2020

Recently, the Jamaica minister of tourism, Edmund Bartlett announced that the ministry will be offering a six-month moratorium on licences and fees that are to be paid by tourism entities.

This was said during a digital press briefing hosted by the ministry of tourism to update stakeholders.

Bartlett mentioned that the categories of entities that are set to benefit include: resort cottages, apartments, guest houses, villas, homestays, car rentals, bike rentals, watersports, domestic tours, contract carriage and craft traders.

Places of interests and various other categories were approved by the minsitry  that have work with the Jamaica Tourist Board and the tourism product development company for licences will also be included.

Bartlett went on saying that the  accumulative revenue that they forego for that six-month period, which will end in September of the year, will be J$9.7 million.

This will give  some level of reprieve and hopefully help with the cash-flow situation for a number of our partners.

Depending on the length of time it takes for the country to recover from the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic the six-month moratorium will be reviewed.

Gordon Shirley, chief executive of the Port Authority of Jamaica, has agreed to chair a cruise recovery programme for Covid-19.

The established panel is a very eminent one, which includes some of the best minds in the cruise sector and they  are hoping to have them begin to work, as early as next Monday, April 20th.

This will allow them to start putting protocols in place and begin engaging with their  partners, to get that sector back on track as quickly as possible.

An update on the tourism recovery task force was also provided which was first announced during a digital media briefing on April 9th.

They will be working on a hard-two-week drive, to get the framework of the recovery ready, for first discussion with a major international company.

This company will be working with them to develop the technical aspect of the plan. They will take that plan to their partners.

After recognizing the changes that are going to take place they want to create a new tourism after Covid-19.

There will be two layers of partners in the task force which will provide a recovery and growth stimulation framework for the sector.

A realistic view of the baseline or starting position of the sector will be created develop scenarios for multiple versions of the future.

It will establish the strategic posture for the sector as well as a broad direction of the journey back to growth.

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