KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett has indicated his commitment to ensuring that tourism entities, especially the small and medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs), are COVID compliant.
Minister Bartlett, who gave the assurance during a recent tour of tourism entities in Hanover and Westmoreland, said: “My Ministry in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and Wellness, has been devising initiatives to ensure that all stakeholders particularly the small and micro enterprises are COVID compliant.
The Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), through the Linkages Network, has been at the forefront of ensuring that these small players in the sector have the gadgetry and personal protective gear available to them.”
The Tourism Linkages Network (TLN) has been donating tourism protective kits, that include infrared thermometers, touchless hand sanitizers, touchless garbage bins, buckets retrofitted with pipes as well as masks.
“These protective kits, which are valued at J$20Million, will be distributed across the island to 500 small tourism entities, such as the vendors who sell fish and bammy at the border of Westmoreland and St. Elizabeth, to ensure they are operating within COVID guidelines.
This is part of our overall product assurance, so visitors and locals feel confident that what they are buying is safe, especially in this new COVID-19 era,” added Minister Bartlett.
SMTEs, through a mixture of loans and grants facilitated by the TEF and its partners, have also been given a lifeline with access to over J$ 2 Billion in funding to help them retool and rebound amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
