Andrea Purkiss says tourism earnings must benefit Jamaican workers and transport operators

Andrea Purkiss MP has argued that Jamaica’s tourism sector is failing too many of the local people who helped build it, telling the 2026 Sectoral Debate that transport operators and hospitality professionals are being edged out by foreign-controlled interests.

Purkiss said the Jamaica Union of Travellers Association was established by People’s National Party minister Francis Tulloch with the clear purpose of giving Jamaicans a route into ownership. She said JUTA, along with JCAL and Maxi operators, reflects generations of families who have earned their living through tourism transportation.

However, she charged that those local operators are now being steadily displaced. According to Purkiss, the Government has permitted large hotel groups to create their own transport arms, reducing opportunities for JUTA and JCAL drivers. She said many all-inclusive resorts now place transportation under foreign company control, while Jamaican drivers still have to pay parking fees to enter hotel compounds.

Purkiss described the all-inclusive system as one that keeps the room, meals, entertainment, water sports and now vehicles under the same foreign corporate structure. She argued that this arrangement prevents much of the industry’s earnings from reaching Jamaican soil.

Drawing on her own hospitality background, Purkiss said she spent 14 years working in the vacation club segment. She stated that Jamaica has about 20 vacation clubs operating across 15 hotels, most of them Spanish-operated, and that the segment brings in roughly US$150 million each year.

She claimed Jamaicans have been deliberately excluded from senior management in that area, saying project director and sales director posts are held by expatriates who are paid in US dollars and Mexican pesos while working in Jamaica. Jamaican sales staff, she said, generate the income and show the ability, but foreigners receive the titles and foreign-currency pay.

Purkiss also criticised what she said was the practice of Jamaican professionals training expatriates who are later appointed above them. She said local knowledge and experience are being passed to foreign nationals who arrive with less expertise, earn more, and leave with the benefit of what Jamaicans taught them. She called the situation a serious indictment on the Ministry of Labour.