Jamaicans Urged to be Responsible in Maintaining Tourism Product

Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, is calling on Jamaicans to play a responsible role in the sustainability and maintenance of the tourism product.
In his message for World Responsible Tourism Day, which will be observed globally on November 12, the Minister urged Jamaicans to “take responsible actions for yourselves, visitors, children, and the safety, comfort, health, wellness and physical environment and surroundings.”
“We expect all Jamaicans to recognise that in keeping our resort areas beautiful, we maintain and present an image of ourselves, our identity,” Mr. Bartlett reasoned. “How we treat ourselves and what we aspire toward, will make people treat us the same way and want to be among us,” he added.
In taking responsible measures as a sector, the Minister highlighted the recently signed partnership agreement between the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) and the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), for the cleaning, beautification and maintenance of the physical environment in the primary tourist resort areas.
This collaboration, he explained, would see the agencies jointly responsible for cutting and clearing undergrowth and overgrowth; garbage collection and disposal; planting and replanting flowers and trees; repairing sidewalks; painting curbs; hanging floral baskets and overall sprucing up of the surroundings.
He noted that this initiative is the “first step in a multi-stage enhancement of deep-beauty treatment for our major resort towns and areas across the country.”
“It is the precursor of strategic environmental enhancement plans, intended to make all our resort areas a showpiece of what the country has to offer as havens of hospitality,” he said.
The Minister pointed out that the clean-up and maintenance programme “represents not only a multi-million dollar investment, but also an investment in the ambition of a small nation that hopes and knows that it can be a world leader in the global tourism industry.”
He urged Jamaicans to “clean up and tidy up. We must treat this investment in the beautification of our country and, specifically, our resort areas, as the beautification of our own homes.”
“We should not willfully, recklessly or negligently cast our garbage along either the roadways or in our own communities. This investment is from your own labour and represents your tourism dollars working for you,” the Minister said.