DAYS AFTER tourism advocates called for the Holness administration to declare a timeline for the resumption of incoming air and sea travel, Jamaica’s most powerful private-sctor lobby has added pressure for a clear road map towards a “date for a safe and sustainable reopening”.

Keith Duncan, president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), yesterday demanded certainty in the wake of a downturn in tourism that has sparked collapsing fortunes in linkage industries such as agriculture, distribution, manufacturing, and the micro, small, and medium enterprise sector.

Jamaica’s tourism and hospitality sector is estimated to have haemorrhaged 300,000 direct and indirect jobs since the outbreak of COVID-19 here in March, and the island’s economy is forecast to contract by more than five per cent, although some analysts put the loss at as much as 10 per cent.

Duncan’s call appears to be a calculated move to increase the crescendo, less than 72 hours after a demand by the Omar Robinson-led Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), on Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

Meanwhile, as Jamaica anticipates the mass return of employees to physical workspaces, Holness is insisting that the country must claw back lost productivity from COVID-19 containment measures.

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