Bartlett: Huge portion of tourism earnings retained in local economy
Published:Thursday | May 2, 2024 | 12:12 AMSashana Small/Staff Reporter
Some 40 per cent of the US$4.38 billion that the tourism sector earned for the 2023-2024 fiscal year was retained in the Jamaica economy, tourism minister Edmund Bartlett has disclosed.
Addressing yesterday’s post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, Bartlett explained that revenues earned in the sector are reinvested into its operational costs.
“So you have to bring in the product first, so the cost of bringing the tourists here; airlines, marketing arrangement, advertising and then the issues of the capital expenditures that have been made to create the facilities here and the infrastructure ... all of these are external payments that have to be made,” he said.
Bartlett also pointed to the costs for tour operators and travel agencies as an additional expense in how tourism revenue is calculated.
“When that is over, you now have to deal with the domestic cost, starting with the taxation. And yesterday, I indicated that $53 billion of direct taxes go into the consol (consolidated) fund,” he said. “And then you have the cost of operating the transportation, the entertainment, the utilities that are required and all of those are costs that have to be borne locally.”
Noting that Jamaica imports a lot of the goods used in the industry, Bartlett stated that the economy could enjoy more retention if more investment is made locally.
“We have to invest more on the supply side so that that 40 cents that stays here can become 50 or 60 because the less we import is the more we retain,” he said.
In his opening contribution to the 2024 Sectoral Debate in Parliament on Tuesday, Bartlett revealed that the gross earnings for 2023-2024 represented a 9.6 per cent increase over the corresponding financial year.
Stopover arrivals, which were estimated at 2.96 million, reflected a 9.4 per cent increase.
And stating that tourism can “take you from nothing and it can make you into something”, he stressed that every Jamaican has the potential to reap the benefits of the sector.
“The image that tourism has borne over the years is for the big man. We want to totally erase that image because it is not true. There is no industry on planet Earth that does more and offers more opportunity for the smallest of persons with the least idea, not a genius, not a rocket scientist, but starting from a little guy with an idea, a foolish little idea to make craps race and in no time they’re driving a car and sending their children to school and building a house. I’ve seen it happen,” he said.