US, Oct. 9 -- Jamaica's Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett delivered a keynote address today, October 9, at the State of the Tourism Industry Conference (SOTIC) in Guyana, calling for a permanent Caribbean Tourism Resilience Fund to protect tourism-dependent economies against hurricanes, climate disruption and financial shocks.

Bartlett proposed a regional financing mechanism involving governments, tourism businesses, development banks, insurers and international investors. The fund would support disaster preparedness, emergency liquidity, tourism workers, small businesses, coastal protection and technology.

He also suggested exploring modest visitor-linked contributions to help finance resilience and urged the Caribbean to expand investm...