Build-back booster
Government commits J$600m to housing support for displaced tourism workers
Published:Monday | December 15, 2025 | 12:06 AMJanet Silvera/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The Government has committed J$600 million to help displaced tourism workers repair and rebuild homes damaged by Hurricane Melissa as part of a broader public-private recovery programme now expected to exceed J$2 billion.
Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett made the announcement during a tourism stakeholders’ meeting at Iberostar on Saturday, describing the initiative as one of the most significant worker-support interventions in Jamaica’s tourism history.
Bartlett said the funding will form part of a coordinated effort between Government and tourism stakeholders to assist workers who lost roofs, electricity, water and household belongings during the hurricane, even as many returned to work immediately to help restore damaged hotels.
“There can be no recovery of tourism in Jamaica without the workers,” Bartlett said. “And that understanding has guided every aspect of this recovery.”
Public-private partnership
According to the minister, tourism partners have already provided nearly US$15 million in direct assistance to workers, including cash grants, food packages, continued salary payments while hotels remain closed, and funding for home repairs and roof replacement.
Bartlett said some companies have gone further, underwriting full rehabilitation of employees’ homes, while others provided weekly or daily care packages to support families through the immediate aftermath of the storm.
“When we tie together what the Government is doing and what the private sector has already done, we are now looking at more than J$2 billion in total support for tourism workers,” he said.
Of that total, the Government’s J$600-million allocation will be directed specifically towards housing rehabilitation, forming the public-sector pillar of the recovery programme.
Bartlett said the approach marks a shift from previous disaster responses, moving beyond state-only assistance to a structured public-private partnership aimed at faster, more targeted relief.
The programme is scheduled to begin disbursing assistance tomorrow, with more than 150 workers expected to receive support in the first phase. Over time, approximately 5,000 tourism workers are projected to benefit.
Bartlett said the initial presentations will involve tourism companies publicly demonstrating the support being provided to their employees, a move he said is intended to set a new standard for accountability and care within the sector.
He said the scale of private-sector involvement has been unprecedented, noting that at least one tourism company has already committed more than J$300 million to worker support.
Bartlett said the response reflects a deeper understanding within the industry of the role workers play in Jamaica’s tourism resilience, particularly following Hurricane Melissa, which caused widespread damage across the island.
He recounted visiting hotels in the days and weeks after the storm and hearing repeated testimonies from workers who, despite losing their homes or basic utilities, reported to duty to help clean up and prepare properties for reopening.
“Workers without roofs, without water, without electricity — and yet they showed up,” Bartlett said. “That tells you something about the spirit of the Jamaican tourism worker.”
The minister said the Government’s rapid response to Hurricane Melissa has also drawn strong international confidence, resulting in billions of US dollars in pledged support from multilateral partners for national recovery.
He said that confidence has extended to tourism, with Jamaica welcoming approximately 300,000 visitors in the past four weeks, even as the sector rebuilds capacity.
Bartlett said the worker-support programme is a critical pillar of the broader tourism recovery strategy, alongside airlift expansion, phased hotel reopening and infrastructure restoration.
“This recovery cannot be measured only in arrivals and earnings,” he said. “It must also be measured in how we care for the people who make tourism possible.”