Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has argued that the sector must move beyond the traditional focus on arrivals and hotel occupancy to become a powerful driver of national development.

Speaking during ‘The Event Playbook: Strategies for Event Tourism Success’ workshop on Thursday at The University of the West Indies, Mona campus in St Andrew, Bartlett noted that for years the industry was perceived as exclusive.

He pointed out that the tourism sector has long being regarded as “something confined to hotels, large companies, or spaces beyond the reach of ordinary Jamaicans — small entrepreneurs, community groups, creative workers, farmers, artisans, and young people”.