No visible impact of Russia-Ukraine conflict on tourism – Bartlett

There is no visible impact of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia on tourism, says Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett.

“But what I can indicate to you is that the potential impact is very, very strong, and it's not something that we're ignoring,” Bartlett added.

He was responding to a question posed during Tuesday's meeting of the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives, whose members are deliberating the 2022/23 Estimates of Expenditure.

The tourism minister said the Government continues to monitor developments in the conflict to determine the extent to which this will affect Jamaica, particularly the tourism industry.

Bartlett cited the potential far-reaching implications of the conflict on key areas such as supply chains, fuel cost, access to airspace, and general movement, which, he noted, “are factors that drive tourism”.

“So, to the extent that these are challenged, then movement to us is also going to be challenged,” he emphasised.

Bartlett said based on Jamaica's location, the country, at times, benefits from a repositioning of tourism-related activities such as cruise shipping.

He pointed out that consequent on the Ukraine/Russia impasse, several large cruise vessels that normally make port calls in the Balkan region and other areas around Eastern Europe are now being repositioned in the Caribbean, “so we will see a benefit there”.

Additionally, the Minister said North Americans usually vacationing in Europe “would want to look to closer destinations, such as Jamaica”.

Bartlett maintained, however, that while there are potential dividends to be derived from the conflict, “[these are] not benefits which we boast about because we do not enjoy benefits from adversities… and the pain of others must not be the blessing of ours”.

“As Chair of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre, I made a statement… a couple days ago that the entire industry must keep its eyes open, while at the same time [we] must start advocating for peace and security to be restored in those areas because [an ongoing conflict] will have a deleterious effect on tourism worldwide,” he said.

- JIS News

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