TEF chair Ryan Parkes urges educators to elevate tourism-linked learning into its own industry strand

ST JAMES, Jamaica — Ryan Parkes, who has just stepped in as chairman of the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), is calling on the teaching service to help place instruction that feeds the visitor economy on the same footing as a separate industry.

The standard of training given to Jamaicans, he maintained, will decide how solidly the island can compete in international tourism.

He spoke on Wednesday at a Teachers' Day luncheon that St James East Central Member of Parliament Edmund Bartlett hosted at the Montego Bay Convention Centre.

The East Central St James Scholarship and Welfare Fund is marking its 30th anniversary this year.

Addressing guests, Parkes said that after Hurricane Melissa in October last year, Jamaica's tourism offer sits at "an inflection point", so repairing the trade is not only about concrete and steel.

He said the country also needs a fresh plan for building its talent base.

"I want to challenge you, the teaching fraternity, to let us make education in tourism — and in a holistic way — a new industry by itself. The opportunities are endless," he said.

He portrayed visitor-related business as one chain that should now link classroom learning, job readiness, and wider economic expansion in a single frame.

The industry still ranks as Jamaica's biggest slice of gross domestic product, he said, at roughly 30 per cent when direct and indirect effects are counted together.

"If the majority of your contribution is already coming from tourism there is the opportunity for us to harness that industry and to ensure that it is well-equipped to compete in the new dimension within which we operate," he told the Jamaica Observer when invited to clarify what he meant by treating tourism education as an industry.

"The teachers being that agent for skills and training, they will have to play a major role in helping to reshape the skill set of our people, and particularly our tourism workers," Parkes went on.

He referenced the Dominican Republic's success in marketing itself around low-cost all-inclusive resorts and suggested Jamaica should highlight its residents above all.

"It's that warmth and behaviour we need training to achieve, and it starts with you being at the heart of this ecosystem," he told teachers.

"Because you are moulding young minds and you are preparing those minds for the world of work, there is no better constituent group than yourselves to be able to have that dialogue with and for us to work together in shaping the future of tourism," he added.