Tourism Recovery Programme: Three Out of Thirty – Andrea Purkiss

Tourism Recovery Programme has helped only 10 per cent of workers who applied, Purkiss reveals in parliament

 A cost control clerk, a mother of three, who kept the accounts of a Jamaican hotel together throughout her career, is today sleeping in her car with her family living under a tent, still waiting for assistance from the Government’s Tourism Housing Assistance and Recovery Programme, Opposition Spokesperson on Tourism and Linkages Andrea Purkiss revealed during her maiden sectoral contribution in Parliament on Tuesday.

Ms Purkiss, who represents Eastern Hanover and brings twenty-seven years of direct hospitality industry experience to her portfolio, disclosed that from her constituency office alone, thirty names of tourism workers were submitted to the THARP programme following Hurricane Melissa. To date, three have received assistance. From the office of the Member of Parliament for South St James, twenty names were submitted. One person has received help.

“Three out of thirty. One out of twenty. We are nine days into a new hurricane season and the recovery from the last one is not complete. That is not a recovery programme. That is a press release with a name. A cost control clerk, a mother of three, is sleeping in her car waiting for a government that promised to see her. She is still waiting.” said Purkiss, Opposition Spokesperson on Tourism and Linkages

The opposition Spokesperson noted that hotel operators originally projected 120-day closure periods following Hurricane Melissa, prompting six-month mortgage moratoriums for affected workers. Reopening timelines were subsequently extended to nine and then twelve months, whilst the moratoriums were not extended to match. Workers have been without income for nine months with no corresponding extension of financial protection.

She called on the Minister of Tourism Ed Bartlett to provide Parliament with a full national accounting of the THARP programme: the total number of applications received, the number processed, the total amount disbursed, and a binding timeline for reaching every worker still waiting before the current hurricane season advances further.