The Jamaica government says it is partnering with The University of the West Indies (UWI) in the delivery of specialised courses of study for hospitality industry stakeholders.
Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett said that the courses that are being developed for possible introduction at the Mona Campus in October will focus on areas such as law, logistics, health, and security.
The objective is to educate personnel about the correlation between tourism and other professional areas in order to better equip them to carry out their roles, and ensure safe, secure and seamless operations within the industry.
Bartlett noted, for example, that law has become a very important area, particularly against the background of the numerous contractual arrangements forged between local stakeholders and international business interests.
He said that in a number of instances “the average tourism worker doesn’t understand that they (too) are party to (those contracts and that for) every visitor who comes here, if we breach those contacts, we have to pay (penalties).
“So we are setting up those courses, now, with the Law (Faculty), hopefully starting in October, so we can have courses in tourism and law, tourism and logistics, tourism and security (and) tourism and health… and begin to understand a little bit more about how to relate to these key areas that are critical moving parts that make the industry happen,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bartlett told the closing ceremony for the 2019 Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) Summer Internship Programme (SIP) that consequent on the need identified for postgraduate research in various areas of tourism, the Ministry and UWI are also collaborating to create a graduate programme for existing and potential industry workers.
Tourism is one of the major revenue earners for Jamaica with the island recording 2.29 million arrivals for the first six months of the year as compared with 2.28 for the same period last year.
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