Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism urges observance of February 17 as Global Tourism Resilience Day

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

A call is being made for the United Nations (UN) for joining the global advocacy for increasing the flexibility of the world tourism, travel and other related industries to ensure their ability to respond quickly to crises and pull through disasters.

As part of the advocacy effort, Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, urged the UN to add of February 17 as Global Tourism Resilience Day to its calendar of observances, from next year.

Resilience in the tourism and travel sector has been discussed since worldwide border closures during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and shutdown of the travel trade and tourism activities across the globe. High unemployment and financial loss to businesses led to widespread economic shrinkage in countries around the world.

Having suffered hugely from the downturn, with a 10 per cent decline in gross domestic product in 2020, tourism-dependent Jamaica continues to play a major role for improving the resilience of tourism and devising common practices for managing crises faced by the industry.

As part of the global advocacy, Bartlett, the co-chair of the Jamaica-based Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC), will launch the first observance of February 17 each year as Global Tourism Resilience Day.

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