Caribbean tourism ministers to meet in Montego Bay
Published:Friday | January 23, 2026 | 12:08 AMJanet Silvera/Senior Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Montego Bay will host a high-level, closed-door meeting of Caribbean tourism ministers on January 31, aimed at forging coordinated regional responses to mounting global pressures on the tourism sector.
The in-camera discussions, hosted by Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, will take place under the umbrella of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and are expected to focus on strengthening the region’s tourism resilience amid growing uncertainty.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Bartlett said ministers will concentrate on two strategic priority areas critical to the sector’s sustainability.
“We’ll be focusing heavily on two key areas – one, our supply-side strategy, to enable more of the tourism consumption needs to be met by Caribbean locals, and second, to examine the geopolitical trends and their implications for Caribbean tourism,” Bartlett told The Gleaner last Saturday night.
He explained that the closed-door format is intended to encourage frank discussions and help ministers move beyond fragmented national responses toward more coordinated regional strategies. Strengthening the region’s supply-side capacity, Bartlett noted, is essential to reducing tourism leakages and ensuring a greater share of tourism earnings remains within Caribbean economies.
The meeting will also provide a forum for ministers to jointly assess how escalating geopolitical tensions and ongoing global conflicts are reshaping travel demand, airlift patterns and operating costs, with direct consequences for destination competitiveness across the region.
The talks come as Caribbean tourism operates in one of its most volatile global environments in decades, shaped by geopolitical tensions, economic uncertainty, supply-chain disruptions, climate-related shocks and rapidly evolving travel patterns. As small, open and tourism-dependent economies, Caribbean states are particularly vulnerable to external shocks beyond their control.
Briefing documents guiding the discussions warn that these pressures have intensified structural vulnerabilities within the regional tourism ecosystem, posing risks to stability and long-term sustainability. Geopolitical conflicts have contributed to volatility in energy markets, foreign exchange fluctuations and disruptions to global transportation networks, affecting airlift availability, route viability and operating costs. Rising fuel and energy costs continue to drive up hotel and transportation expenses, eroding destination competitiveness.
Against this backdrop, ministers are expected to examine the limits of unilateral national responses and the growing need for deeper regional coordination. CTO briefing papers stress that fragmented approaches are increasingly inadequate to address the interconnected challenges facing Caribbean tourism, positioning the Montego Bay meeting as a critical step toward cohesive regional solutions.