As global tourism stakeholders and policymakers commemorated the first official Global Tourism Resilience Day on February 17, Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett issued a call for the creation of a global fund to support tourism-dependent nations in periods of disruption.

“We as an industry have the capacity to enable this fund to happen seamlessly because we are the most consumption-driven activity on planet earth.”

Bartlett suggested that one way the fund could be financed is through a voluntary ‘Resilience Tip’ given by the 1.4 billion consuming travellers and “that contribution stays in the recipient countries and build that fund to enable capacity for resilience.”

Tariq Ali, Caribbean GM for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), also underscored the importance of building resilience in tourism-dependent nations, especially in wake of the pandmeic. “While we would like to see more economies diversifying, a high-performing tourism sector is needed to see further economic growth and recovery.”

Bartlett expressed that “while we talk about building resilience for tourism we have to focus in the wider perspective on social, economic, political, health and security disruptions.”

He said resilience can only come by expanding human capacity to “predict, mitigate, manage disruptions when they arise, recover quickly and to thrive thereafter.”

The call came as key players in tourism from around the world, including the Caribbean and Africa, devoted the third day of the first-ever Global Tourism Resilience Conference to continuing discussions on the: Road to Global Sustainability and Development.