Project Overview
Hurricane Melissa revealed a painful truth: Jamaica’s tourism workforce, the front-desk staff, tour guides, drivers, beach vendors, and craft traders who are the lifeblood of the sector, carry the greatest burden during crises yet often have the least access to structured recovery support. This initiative was born from that reality. Hurricane Melissa Tourism Resilience and Recovery Initiative is a coordinated national recovery and resilience effort, led by to critical centres at The University of the West Indies, the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) and the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic Studies who will provide Monitoring and Evaluation solutions for the initiative. The project will be funded through resources received from GTRCMCs Global Tourism Fund and will support the human side of tourism recovery, those whose livelihoods sustain Jamaica’s visitor economy. Through three integrated phases, Emergency Management, Recovery Management, and Resilience Building, the project delivers rapid relief, coordinated recovery, and long-term capacity building to secure livelihoods and strengthen destination readiness.
This project will have 3 phases:
Programme Phases
Phase 1: Emergency Management – Immediate Relief
- Providing 5,000 emergency care packages to households in tourism-dependent communities across eight parishes.
- Each package addresses immediate needs in food, water, hygiene, health, and education – stabilizing livelihoods while data dashboards track equity, timeliness, and community satisfaction.
Phase 2: Recovery Management – Rapid Coordination
- Executing a Tourist Recovery Needs Assessment (TRNA) to rapidly identify and respond to stranded or affected visitors, using multilingual communication and real-time heat maps.
- This phase ensures safety, mobility, and protection of Jamaica’s reputation as a caring and resilient destination.
Phase 3: Resilience Building – Training, Innovation & Awareness
- Training 1,000 tourism workers and certifying 20 community trainers across eight parishes through a blended learning model—combining in-person workshops and an offline-capable Tourism Resilience App featuring interactive guides, games, and multilingual checklists.
- A national webinar series engages 3,000 participants to build a culture of preparedness and adaptive recovery.
Why This Matters
- Every day of downtime after a disaster means lost income for workers, MSMEs, and communities.
- This programme bridges that gap by translating policy into action, technology into tools, and research into recovery outcomes—ensuring that resilience is not abstract but lived and measurable.
Impact Highlights
- 5,000 households supported with emergency care packages.
- 1,000 trained workers equipped with practical resilience skills.
- 20 certified trainers enabling local delivery beyond project life.
- 500 businesses adopting digital business continuity plans.
- 5,000 mobile app users accessing offline micro-lessons and recovery templates.
- 3,000 participants in public awareness webinars.
Partners in Action
Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC)
Headquartered at The University of the West Indies, Mona, the GTRCMC is the world’s leading institution dedicated to helping destinations prepare for, manage, and recover from crises. Operating in six countries with over 300 affiliates, it integrates global best practices into actionable local resilience solutions.
The Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES)
As the Caribbean’s premier research institute, SALISES provides methodological rigor through data analytics, evaluation, and policy translation-ensuring that every action taken under this project is guided by evidence, equity, and long-term sustainability.
Budget & Timeline
The initiative is valued at USD $1,000,000, executed over 12 months in collaboration with community partners, tourism enterprises, and government agencies.
Get Involved
You can help us build a more resilient tourism future.
- Partner with us to expand training and support hubs.
- Sponsor recovery care packages for affected families.
- Adopt a parish through co-funded recovery initiatives.
- Support digital innovation to scale the Tourism Resilience App.
