Board Chairman of the Tourism Workers Pension Scheme (TWPS), Mr. Ryan Parkes (left) and Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett engage in a brief discussion ahead of the TWPS annual general meeting on Friday, September 18, 2026 at the Montego Bay Convention Centre.

Tourism minister, Edmund Bartlett, has set a bold target of 50,000 members for the Tourism Workers Pension Scheme, TWPS, by 2028, with savings of more than $1 billion.

The growth target was set at the scheme’s recent annual general meeting at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St. James.

Nora Gaye Banton reports.

TWPS was launched in 2022 with the initial eligible worker total at just over 350,000 individuals.

The four-year-old scheme now has just under 11,000 registered members and an estimated $6 billion in savings.

Speaking at the TWPS’s AGM on Friday, tourism minister, Edmund Bartlett, says he is disappointed by the response some employers have had in getting their workers enrolled.

He says several hotels and attractions he has visited are not energetic about signing up workers, because they have to make a matching contribution. The minister is hinting that membership could be made mandatory.

He says the Tourism Product Development Company, the Jamaica Tourist Board and the Tourism Enhancement Fund could be used to make pension enrolment a condition of operation and that the governing legislation is being reviewed.

Bartlett says the goal is to eventually bring in all 175,000 workers directly employed in tourism, including the self-employed.

He says for 50 years tourism workers gave their service to make Jamaica a world-class destination, only to retire with no safety net, which he describes as unjust.

The minister is also pitching the fund as a way to boost domestic savings.

He says the money can be invested locally in infrastructure, housing, businesses and government paper, helping to lower interest rates.

And he is urging the fund’s managers to look at adding health insurance, disability coverage and housing support.

He says discussions are under way to give tourism workers access to mortgages of up to 40 or 50 years.