U.S., April 2 -- The Hon. Edmund Bartlett, Minister of tourism introduced a new initiative today to help laid-off tourism workers in Jamaica.

He said: The outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus presents the tourism sector with a major and evolving challenge. In light of this, Jamaica Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett provided the nation with an update on the COVID-19 tourism impact the pandemic has had locally and the plans in place to cushion the impact.

he said:" It is well known that today that tourism is the largest and most important industry in the world employing just over 450 million people representing some 11 percent of global employment and generating US$8.8 trillion of expenditure which is about 10.9 percent of global GDP...