MANHATTAN, New York — Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism and Chairman of the Tourism Supply-Side Ministerial Committee, Edmund Bartlett on Thursday addressed the launch of the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s (CTO) Supply-Side Initiative in New York, calling for a fundamental shift in how the region measures and develops its tourism economy.

Speaking under the theme: ‘Reimagining Caribbean Tourism’, Bartlett argued that the sector must move beyond traditional metrics of arrivals and occupancy to focus on how tourism stimulates local production, strengthens regional value chains, and retains wealth within Caribbean economies.

“What we must now prioritise is the extent to which tourism stimulates production, strengthens regional value chains, and retains wealth within our economies,” said Bartlett. “We are building a practical architecture for regional economic integration — one that connects what we produce, how we move it, and how it is consumed within the tourism economy.”