Global tourism is facing an unprecedented challenge from the novel coronavirus pandemic.

According to the World Economic Forum close to 90 per cent of the world’s population now lives in countries with travel restrictions; an estimated 25 million aviation jobs and 100 million travel and tourism jobs are at risk, hence the reason why most countries are now in the re-opening mode.

Jamaica is no different and has to look at pragmatic ways of getting its economy going without compromising the significant gains made in the fight against SARS-CoV-2 and its disease, COVID-19.

This is more urgent because of the position in which we find ourselves, having lost the excellent momentum we had been building for several years in growth in tourism and its contribution to jobs and the economy.

Despite the devastating impact that COVID-19 has had on our tourism, economy and is having on our lives, the hiatus brought about by the pandemic is an opportunity to restructure the sector to ensure that more of the dollars earned from tourism stay in the country and benefit more people.

Re-opening also requires that we think very carefully about how this is done and the consequences of getting it wrong, as many in the sector are doing. We must therefore “make haste slowly” and do so with deliberate, sure-footed, calculated precision.

http://www.loopjamaica.com/content/jamaicas-tourism-product-ripe-reinvention