Growth & Jobs | GemVoyage transforming transport operations on the tourism landscape

On Wednesday, September 2, the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), in partnership with the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) and ATL Automotive Limited,welcomed 15 Jamaican entrepreneurs into the ‘Third Cohort’ of its Tourism Innovation Incubator (TII).

Ten men and five women were formally introduced during a meet-and-greet event inside the Audi Showroom, along Oxford Road in St Andrew. One of the persons who addressed the gathering was Shanya Connell, representing Cohort Two. Her idea, GemVoyage, placed second in the 2025 TEF TII Pitch Event. TEF funding, mentorship and industry access supported the company’s movement from an idea towards market testing.

“Before joining the incubator, I entered a pitch competition with an idea I was really confident about. One of the judges asked me a very simple question: ‘How will the business make money?’ And I could barely answer. Apparently, ‘I’ll figure that out’ is not a business model. At the time, I thought I had a business. I didn’t. I had an idea, and TEF taught me the difference,” Connell said.

“My idea was about improving tourism transportation in Jamaica, for the people who work in the industry and for the visitors who come here. That idea would eventually become GemVoyage … . I entered this programme as a student with an idea. I left as an entrepreneur with a registered limited liability company, a clear MVP (minimum viable product), a prototype and a much bigger vision for what GemVoyage could become.”

digital transport coordination

GemVoyage is a Montego Bay-based tourism technology company using one platform where visitors can book transport and experiences, drivers can manage trips, and operators can coordinate the journey. But, long before the incubator idea germinated, Connell had seen the work behind the pre-arranged transport that moves visitors between Jamaica’s airports, hotels, villas and experiences, from inside her own family.

Her father, Gregg, works as a tourism driver and operator, while her mother helped coordinate guest movement and dispatch. She saw the long hours, changing schedules and pressure behind every guest pick-up, and how much of the work would depend on calls, messages, paper records and individual follow-ups.

Thus, the challenges were: “bookings can be scattered across calls, messages and paper records; dispatchers may coordinate drivers and trips through repeated manual follow-ups; guests can depend on separate calls or messages for trip updates; and small attractions, restaurants and vendors can be difficult for visitors to discover and reach.”

“That experience shaped GemVoyage, a digital transport coordination and connected tourism platform. It is designed to organise the work that licensed transport operators already do and give visitors one place to book transport, follow their journeys and discover more of Jamaica,” she said. “The goal is simple: give the people who keep Jamaica’s tourism moving and connected better tools to do their work.”

public launch

The process starts in the GemVoyage customer app or website to book tourism transport or to look at what tours, activities and other local offerings are available. That booking then connects prospective customers to information needed to deliver the journey. One connected tourism journey means that transport, trip updates and the experiences which a visitor discovers do not have to sit in separate arrangements. GemVoyage links what the visitor books with the operator who coordinates it, the driver who delivers it and the Jamaican businesses they may visit.

Shanya is the founder and chief executive officer at GemVoyage, ‘One island. Many gems. One connected voyage’. She combines first-hand exposure to tourism mobility with training in technology and marketing. The University of Technology graduate holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degrees in computer science, and is pursuing a PhD in marketing management. Her father, who is the tourism transport adviser, has more than 20 years of tourism transportation experience. He is president of the Montego Bay Maxi Taxi Association, and advises GemVoyage on driver operations, guest expectations and industry realities.

The soft launch of GemVoyage is coming up shortly, and the company is seeking additional licensed drivers, transport operators and tourism businesses to participate in the beta testing and help refine the platform before the public launch. It has a customer app, a driver app, and a GemVoyage demo video. Beta apps are pre-release versions of software applications that developers release to real-world users for testing before the final public launch.