UNWTO Secretary General to visit Jamaica in June

Tourism Minister of Jamaica
Edmund Bartlett

Jamaica Tourism Minister Hon. Edmund Bartlett (seen left in the photo) and his colleague, Senator, the Hon. Aubyn Hill (seen right), Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, share a light moment with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary-General, Zurab Pololikashvili, (seen center) following their high-level meeting today in Madrid, Spain.

General Zurab Pololikashvili
 World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)
General Secretary

During their meeting they discussed

strategies to foster the rebound of the global tourism industry and also finalized plans for Jamaica to host the UNWTO Regional Commission for the Americas (CAM) meeting from June 23-24, 2021. Jamaica currently chairs the CAM and will relinquish its position at the General Assembly in Morocco in October.

Minister Bartlett also outlined that the Cabinet has since approved Jamaica’s candidacy for the UNWTO Executive Council for the period 2022-2026.

The Secretary General is expected to visit Jamaica for the CAM meeting in June as well as an official tour of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre. It will be the first time Mr. Pololikashvili will be visiting the English-speaking Caribbean.

The Jamaica Ministry of Tourism and its agencies are on a mission to enhance and transform Jamaica’s tourism product, while ensuring that the benefits which flow from the tourism sector are increased for all Jamaicans. To this end it has implemented policies and strategies that will provide further momentum for tourism as the engine of growth for the Jamaican economy. The Ministry remains committed to ensuring that the tourism sector makes the fullest contribution possible to Jamaica’s economic development given its tremendous earning potential.

At the Ministry, they are leading the charge to strengthen the linkages between tourism and other sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and entertainment, and in so doing encourage every Jamaican to play their part in improving the country’s tourism product, sustaining investment, and modernizing and diversifying the sector to foster growth and job creation for fellow Jamaicans. The Ministry sees this as critical to Jamaica’s survival and success and has undertaken this process through an inclusive approach, which is driven by the Resort Boards, through wide-scale consultation.

Recognizing that a collaborative effort and a committed partnership between the public and private sectors will be needed to achieve set targets, central to the Ministry’s plans is maintaining and nurturing its relationship with all key stakeholders. In so doing, it is believed that with the Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development as a guide and the National Development Plan – Vision 2030 as a benchmark – the Ministry’s goals are achievable for the benefit of all Jamaicans.