The issue facing Caribbean insurance firms is to play a crucial part in guaranteeing safety and security within the region’s tourism sector.
Hon. Edmund Bartlett, the minister of tourism, used Jamaica’s tourism recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic as an example. He claimed that during the pandemic, the insurance sector was needed on board as a safety valve to reassure travellers that they had protection if anything unexpected occurred when they arrived at the destination. According to him, this was crucial to the industry’s quick comeback.
In his keynote address at the Hall of Fame Induction banquet of the 34th Sales Congress of the Caribbean Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (CARAIFA), which was held at the Hilton Rose Hall Resort & Spa in Montego Bay yesterday (May 14), Minister Bartlett outlined his viewpoint.
“As the islands urgently act to integrate resilience as a core component of its tourism development agenda, Caribbean insurance companies can play a critical role in helping to protect the tourism sector in the face of future crises,” he stated.
He outlined a number of ways the insurance sector can support tourism resilience, including by providing coverage for loss of income and property damage brought on by a variety of risks, such as natural disasters, pandemics, or other disruptions; by assisting businesses and individuals in accurately assessing the risk associated with their operations and by offering advice on the types of coverage that should be taken out; and by raising awareness of the significance of taking out insurance.
The campaigns, according to Mr. Bartlett, could include advice on risk management best practises, warning people about the repercussions of not having enough insurance, and enlightening travellers who are unsure of the risk they might be exposed to and what insurance coverage to look for.
He added that the insurance sector could support initiatives for disaster response and relief, such as providing financial assistance to organisations and people affected by natural disasters or pandemic-related disruptions, as well as supporting rebuilding efforts, to help promote tourism resilience.
Minister Bartlett noted that discussions on establishing a full pension plan across the region using as a model Jamaica’s ground-breaking comprehensive Tourism Workers Pension Scheme (TWPS), which involves two major insurance companies in the management and administration of the fund, took place at last week’s Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association’s (CHTA) 41st Caribbean Travel Marketplace in Barbados.
Minister Bartlett noted that “it has tremendous implications for capital formation across the Caribbean because there are one million workers in the tourism sector in the region; 643,000 of whom are working directly in the industry and the others indirectly,” and that “if that pension plan is taken across the region as Jamaica has it, there is potential to create a level of domestic saving, the size of which the region would never have.”
He stated that because Jamaica’s TWPS is now fully functioning, “We now need a comprehensive health plan for the industry’s workers,” and he tasked the insurance industry with “creating an instrument that will enable a health security arrangement for the workers of the Caribbean tourism industry.”
Minister Bartlett urged the insurance providers in the area to “build the human capital of our region” in light of the CARAIFA sales congress’s resilience-focused theme. In his words, “Resilience has to come from knowledge, from building capacity for people to convert ideas into meaningful and practical application that will have a value, and so we must build the capacity of our young people to think, not just to regurgitate information which they get by reading a text but learn to innovate.”
In light of this, he requested that CARAIFA collaborate with the educational system on a scheme “to help establish innovation incubators where young people can learn about financial administration, how to use their money properly and wisely, and learn what insurance is all about.”
Source: breakingtravelnews