Jamaica's Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, is calling on the Caribbean region to transform its resilience—traditionally viewed as a sentiment—into a science-based approach, warning of an impending era of unprecedented megastorms. He highlighted the work of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC), which he co-founded in Jamaica, as a vital resource both regionally and globally. «Once again, the recovery of tourism in the Caribbean will be the spearhead for the country's recovery,» he declared, assuring that with the resumption of tourism, «income, hope, and dignity will return». The minister also reported preliminary damage assessments from Hurricane Melissa, indicating Jamaica's losses are between 28 and 32% of its GDP, with some international estimates exceeding US$10 billion. He underscored the tourism sector's historical role in the region's recovery, citing precedents like hurricanes Ivan (2004), Irma and Maria (2017), and Dorian (2019). «We need to build capacity not just to predict disturbances of this nature, but also to mitigate them, manage them, recover quickly, and thrive afterward,» Bartlett urged.
