Jamaica places health research, science and tourism at the center of its development strategy
Jamaica is trying to further expand the meaning of tourism in national development policy, and the latest move comes through linking the tourism industry, medical research and public-health resilience. Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett, at the University of the West Indies, on the Mona campus in Kingston, spoke at the launch of the new research fund of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, presenting it as part of a broader development model in which tourism is no longer viewed only through arrivals, overnight stays and visitor spending. According to his message, health systems, scientific infrastructure and the ability to respond quickly to crises are becoming just as important as transport connectivity, hotel capacity and international destination marketing. Such an approach is especially important for countries where tourism has a strong impact on employment, foreign-exchange earnings and regional development, because every health, climate or security crisis can very quickly grow into an economic problem.
Tourism as a matter of trust, not just travel
In his address, Bartlett emphasized a concept he describes as tourism health resilience, that is, the ability of a destination to maintain trust among visitors, workers and local communities even in moments of disruption. Within that framework, tourism is not reduced only to the movement of people, but to a sense of safety, predictability and institutional readiness. The COVID-19 pandemic showed how quickly a health risk can halt international travel, close hotels, reduce the income of small entrepreneurs and put pressure on public finances. For that reason, in the new development model, the emphasis is shifting to research, early risk detection, quality health infrastructure in tourism areas, food safety, sanitation, emergency response and the mental health of workers in the sector. The message from the launch of the fund was that the competitiveness of a tourist destination increasingly depends on whether it can prove that it is capable of anticipating a crisis, managing it and recovering without a long-term loss of trust.
The research fund at UWI Mona as part of the wider picture
The new fund of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of the West Indies, Mona, was presented as an instrument that should encourage research with practical value for the health system, tourism and public policies. According to available information from the address, research priorities are expected to range from strengthening public health in tourism zones to monitoring worker well-being, preparedness for climate-related health risks and the use of artificial intelligence in surveillance, data analysis and crisis management. Such a direction fits into the international trend in which tourism is increasingly viewed as a cross-sector activity: it depends on transport, energy, health care, education, digital systems, security and local production. For the university, this means an opportunity for medical research not to remain closed within the academic space, but to be transformed into tools that can help hospitals, tourism workers, regulators, hoteliers and local communities.
“Local First” and keeping greater value in the country
One of the important emphases of Bartlett’s speech was the “Local First” policy, aimed at ensuring that as large a share as possible of the value created in tourism remains in the local economy. In that logic, local does not refer only to agricultural products, culture or craft services, but also to knowledge, research, innovation and health security. Bartlett said that local institutions, including universities, hospitals and research centers, should become active providers of solutions for the tourism sector. In this way, the tourism value chain expands beyond hotels, restaurants and transport toward laboratories, data systems, educational programs and medical services. For Jamaica, this is an attempt for tourism not to be only an industry that imports a large part of the services and knowledge it needs, but a platform that encourages domestic capacities and creates space for experts from different fields.
The Global Tourism Resilience Centre and the role of the university
UWI Mona already has a special role in Jamaican tourism resilience policy because it is home to the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre, a centre established in 2018 for research, preparation and response to disruptions affecting tourism. According to Jamaica’s Ministry of Tourism, the centre has grown into an international network with satellite centres in Africa, North America and the Middle East, and brings together experts in crisis communication, sustainable development and tourism risk management. Its importance grew further after the pandemic, when destination resilience became one of the key issues of global tourism policy. In that context, the launch of a medical research fund on the same university campus sends a message that knowledge about crisis management is intended to be linked with concrete health research, and not retained only at the level of tourism strategy and international conferences.
From the Jamaican initiative to Tourism Resilience Day
In the last few years, Jamaica has sought to build the international profile of a country that shapes the discussion on tourism resilience. The University of the West Indies announced that in 2023 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution marking February 17 as Global Tourism Resilience Day, and the initiative is linked to the work of Professor Lloyd Waller and the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre on the Mona campus. According to the university’s announcement, the resolution was supported by 94 countries, and the aim is to highlight the need for tourism to prepare for shocks, crises and disruptions. In February 2026, at a conference in Nairobi, Bartlett again called for the establishment of a global tourism resilience fund, which would finance rapid technical assistance in crises, strengthening cybersecurity, responding to disinformation, research, early-warning systems and monitoring indicators. This continuity shows that the launch of the medical research fund is not being presented as an isolated academic event, but as part of a longer-term attempt to connect tourism, science and crisis management.
The economic pressure behind development policy
The reason why Jamaican authorities place tourism at the center of the development strategy is also visible in economic indicators. Jamaica Information Service reported that Minister Bartlett, in October 2025, spoke in parliament about a projection of 4.3 million visitors and 4.6 billion US dollars in tourism revenue for 2025. In the same appearance, he spoke about the ambition to reach eight million visitors and 10 billion US dollars in revenue by 2030. Official statistics from the Jamaica Tourist Board regularly track annual and monthly arrivals, cruise traffic and other tourism indicators, confirming that the sector is viewed as one of the main pillars of economic policy. But precisely such dependence on tourism increases the need for resilient systems: if revenues, jobs and investments are strongly tied to the perception of destination safety, then public health, climate preparedness and credible communication become directly economic issues.
Health, climate and digital risks are ever closer to tourism
Bartlett’s message comes at a time when tourist destinations around the world are facing crises that often overlap. Health threats, extreme weather events, geopolitical instability, cyberattacks, supply-chain disruptions and disinformation can influence travelers’ decisions in a very short time. In Nairobi, Bartlett warned that false information, distorted recordings and digital attacks can damage a destination’s reputation as quickly as physical damage to infrastructure. That message is also important for the medical research fund because modern health security does not rely only on hospitals and doctors, but also on data, communication channels, public trust and the ability of institutions to quickly explain what is happening. If the fund succeeds in connecting medical research, data analytics and tourism crisis management, it could become an example of how academic research is transformed into instruments of public policy.
Medical research as part of the tourism product
In public appearances, Jamaica’s Ministry of Tourism increasingly speaks about health and wellness as an area of growth, but the new message goes beyond classic wellness tourism. It is not only about spa centers, natural resources or medical services for visitors, but about the idea that health is the foundation of the tourism product itself. A destination that wants to be competitive must have clear emergency protocols, reliable sanitary practices, safe food, workers who are not exhausted and institutions capable of responding to epidemics, heat waves, hurricanes or disinformation campaigns. In this sense, medical research becomes part of the economic infrastructure. It can help define standards, measure risks, shape training and direct investments toward areas where the benefit is greatest.
Open questions and implementation challenges
Although the political message is clear, the success of the fund will depend on implementation details: stable financing, transparent selection of research projects, cooperation with public health, the inclusion of tourism workers and the ability for research results to actually be applied. It is currently not clear how much funding the fund will have available, which projects will receive priority or within what timeframe the first measurable results will be expected. It will also be important to avoid using the concept of resilience only as a political slogan. If research remains connected to concrete problems, from health care in tourism zones to worker protection and crisis communication, the fund could contribute to creating a model in which tourism does not exhaust public systems, but encourages them to modernize.
A development model that ties tourism to knowledge
The launch of the research fund at UWI Mona can therefore be read as an attempt by Jamaica to move tourism policy from the traditional framework of destination promotion toward the broader issue of national resilience. Bartlett’s appearance connected three areas that are often viewed separately: health care as a public service, science as an academic activity and tourism as a source of income. In practice, their connection is becoming increasingly obvious. Travelers choose destinations they trust, tourism workers need safe and sustainable conditions, and countries that depend on international arrivals must have systems that can withstand shocks. The Jamaican example shows how, in the new phase of global competition, tourism is increasingly defined through the ability of institutions to produce knowledge, protect health and maintain trust in a period of constant disruptions.
Sources:- eTurboNews – report on Edmund Bartlett’s address at the launch of the research fund of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at UWI Mona (link)- University of the West Indies – announcement on the role of UWI and the GTRCMC in the declaration of Global Tourism Resilience Day (link)- Jamaica Tourist Board – announcement on the 4th Global Tourism Resilience Day conference in Nairobi and the call for a global resilience fund (link)- Jamaica Information Service – official announcement on projections of tourist arrivals and revenue for 2025 (link)- Jamaica Tourist Board – official page with tourism statistical reports (link)- Ministry of Tourism of Jamaica – profile of Edmund Bartlett and information on the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (link)
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