Campaign On For Global Tourism Resilience Day

The Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) in Kingston will be launching a worldwide coordinated campaign with local, regional and international partners in a bid to designate February 17 as Global Tourism Resilience Day.

Addressing a virtual forum on Thursday (February 3), Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, said that as part of efforts to bring more global focus on the need for tourism resilience, the GTRCMC is seeking to designate a resilience day.

“The GTRCMC, along with its allies, will put together the launching of a global campaign to raise awareness and share knowledge regarding best practices in tourism resilience for global sustainability to begin planning for the next disruption,” Mr. Bartlett outlined.

“The campaign will include advocating to international bodies such as the United Nations for the observation of a Global Tourism Resilience Day, beginning February 17, 2023, and it is our intention to have the first and most important campaign programme starting on February17, 2022 in the frame of the World Expo 20, being held in Dubai in the Emirates,” he added.

Mr. Bartlett noted that already, there is worldwide support from the Organization of American States (OAS), World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), Global Travel and Tourism Resilience Council, and International Tourism and Investment Conference (ITIC), among other key stakeholders.

“Unfortunately, COVID-19, in my mind, is the most catastrophic event that international tourism has faced in its history [and] over the past two years, governments, relevant organisations and industry leaders, with varying degrees of success, have rolled out a range of strategic, innovative and policy response to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on travel and tourism,” the Minister said.

“The lessons, insights and experiences of the past years are valuable toolkits for the sector to plan for its future by wiring resilience building efforts into the core of his ecosystem,” he added.

For his part, Secretary General of World Tourism Forum Institute, Dr. Taleb Rifai, said it is imperative that global tourism become more resilient against future threats to the industry, and having a Global Tourism Resilience Day builds immunity.

“Jamaica has been great, and I want to salute Minister Bartlett for initiating this idea and making it global,” Dr. Rifai pointed out.