KINGSTON, June 18 (JIS): Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, has reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to environmental sustainability.
Speaking during Wednesday’s (June 18) post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, Mr. Bartlett emphasised that the symbiotic relationship between development and the environment is undeniable.
“Tourism is very, very concerned about this, because the environment is the product, and we have no product if we have a degraded environment,” he said.
Mr. Bartlett reasoned that all development plans must be rooted in harmony with the environment and guided by regenerative principles.
“So, if you remove something here, you put it back over there. If you go into the ocean, for example, and remove seaweeds in order to put a bungalow, you replant it somewhere else. So we are making sure that the sustainability of our environment is intact at all times,” the Minister explained.
Meanwhile, Mr. Bartlett advised that Jamaica’s tourism investment potential has grown, with the ratio of visitors to locals being one to one.
“That is an inflection point that we’ve reached. So we’re going to pivot now from the heavy reliance on the all-inclusives that we’ve had in the past to luxury tourism, and already we have six mega developments that are coming on stream or are already on stream that are going to respond fully to that pivot,” he said.
CONTACT: JUDANA MURPHY
