Jamaica Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, has announced plans for a major overhaul of Jamaica’s tourism governance framework through the creation of a new Tourism Authority and supporting legislation designed to modernize oversight of the sector and support the implementation of the new Tourism 3.0 growth agenda.
The announcement was made during the Minister’s 2026 Sectoral Debate Presentation at Gordon House recently, under the theme “Trust and Confidence,” in which he outlined institutional reforms aimed at creating a governance system that is clearer, faster, and stronger.
The reform package will require legislation to repeal and replace the Tourist Board Act, 1955, and the River Rafting Authority Act, 1970, facilitate the establishment of a new Tourism Authority Act, and create a dedicated Tourism Authority to serve as Jamaica’s principal tourism regulator.
“The Tourism Authority is not about creating another layer of bureaucracy.. It is about creating the institutional backbone required to govern a modern tourism economy,” Minister Bartlett underscored.
He explained that Jamaica’s tourism sector has evolved beyond administrative structures that historically combined marketing, regulation, licensing, inspection, and destination assurance functions across multiple entities.
“Tourism has outgrown the older administrative arrangements. The sector we are building now is larger, more complex, more diversified, more exposed to global risk, and more central to national development,” he said.
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Under the new governance structure, the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) will focus exclusively on destination marketing, branding, and market development, while the new Tourism Authority will lead licensing, registration, standards, compliance, enforcement, and regulatory intelligence.
The tourism minister further noted that the concept is now before Cabinet and that the Government intends to complete policy development and issue drafting instructions before the end of the current financial year.
“That means we are moving Tourism 3.0 from policy language into institutional action,” Bartlett added.
The Authority will also support stronger destination assurance by strengthening the framework through which Jamaica protects quality, safety, reliability, and integrity across the visitor experience.
“Promotion sells the promise. Regulation protects the promise. Destination assurance delivers the promise. And governance sustains the promise. The Tourism Authority will therefore be the institution that helps protect the promise Jamaica sells to the world,” the Minister added.
As part of the reform, the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) will transition into a more focused role centered on product development, destination upgrading, training, quality improvement, and visitor experience support.
Meanwhile, the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) will continue to drive product enhancement, innovation, and strategic investment, while Jamaica Vacations (JAMVAC) will maintain responsibility for airlift, cruise development, homeporting, and access expansion.
Minister Bartlett emphasized that all public bodies would operate within a unified Tourism 3.0 framework led by the Ministry of Tourism. “The Ministry sets policy. The Tourism Authority regulates. JTB markets. TPDCo develops and supports product quality. TEF invests and strengthens linkages. JAMVAC expands access. And all agencies align around one Tourism 3.0 strategy,” he explained.
Positioning the reform within the wider “Trust and Confidence” framework, Bartlett argued that governance reform is essential to sustaining Jamaica’s competitiveness in an increasingly uncertain global environment.
“Properly designed, the Tourism Authority will become a confidence institution. It will give confidence to the visitor, confidence to the investor, confidence to the worker, confidence to the community and confidence to the Jamaican people that this industry is being governed in a way that reflects its national importance.”
