The Ministry of Tourism will be launching its Innovation-based Tourism Incubator on September 30, during the observance of Tourism Awareness Week.
Speaking at a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’ on September 12, Portfolio Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, said the incubator “will ferret new ideas, and then incentivise the ideas by providing funding support.”
He noted that the facility’s establishment is part of the Ministry’s overall policy direction to build knowledge within the sector, through young people.
“We will be having a bootcamp for these young people whose ideas we are pulling, then we will be matching their outcomes… with private sector entities,” Minister Bartlett said.
He stressed that the incubator is an added channel for creating new skill sets within the tourism sector and encouraging more young people to get involved in the industry.
“If a young person comes up with a new idea about some process in tourism, or how to do a particular chore at a hotel better, or how to create an added value to an attraction which we now have, we can pair them with the particular entrepreneurial group, hotel [or] attraction [or] we can tie them to the technology that is giving rise to the innovative thoughts that they have generated,” the Minister explained.
The incubator’s rollout is being led by the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF). A special division was created within the entity to implement the initiative.
Mr. Bartlett indicated that the facility is an “all of government activity”, as it will also be linking to the innovation incubator programme being undertaken by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service.
Meanwhile, other activities are being planned to mark this year’s observance of Tourism Awareness Week, slated for September 25 to October 1 under the theme: ‘Rethinking Tourism’.
The events will include a church service, the virtual Edmund Bartlett lecture series, the launch of an online resource guide, the ‘Style Jamaica’ runway show, a tourism opportunities visionary symposium, a youth forum, a special virtual knowledge forum, a tourism stakeholder engagement activity, and a youth poster competition.