MONTEGO BAY, St James — Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett has received strong commendation from several Cabinet colleagues who were on official duty in the United States for bringing the high level United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) conference to Jamaica scheduled for November 27 to 29.

Minister of Finance and the Public Service Audley Shaw; Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Kamina Johnson-Smith; Minister in the Office of Prime Minister Daryl Vaz; Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United Nations Courtney Rattray; Director of Tourism Paul Pennicook; Senior Tourism Advisor Delano Seiveright and Consul General to New York City Trudy Deans, as well as leaders of the Jamaican Diaspora, encouraged and endorsed the conference as a game-changer in cementing understanding of the significant value of tourism and its critical role in building linkages throughout the Jamaican economy to drive sustainable growth and development.

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The Cabinet members gave their endorsement at a meeting of the Diaspora, organised by the Jamaica Tourist Board at Jamaica’s Consulate in New York City, last week. The ministers, who were in New York City briefly on official government business, reportedly found time to address Jamaican community leaders about the event and tourism’s key role in achieving economic growth objectives.

In commemoration of the 2017 UNWTO’s International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, the event is a collaboration between the Government of Jamaica, international development firm Chemonics International and the UNWTO.

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The conference is of especially momentous importance because it is the first time the UNWTO will stage a world conference on tourism in the Caribbean or the Americas.

The conference will bring the world’s spotlight to Jamaica and the Caribbean, both of which rely heavily on the economic power of tourism. The participating heads of state, planners, policy makers, developers and investors will discuss the need for public-private-partnerships with the mission of sustainable tourism for development.

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Bartlett underscored the need to stem tourism leakage by building out the linkages in our communities to capture the tourism dollar.

“National planning capabilities need to be improved, investment and development frameworks must be strengthened, the legal environment requires improvement, and the capacity of the tourism trade/local beneficiaries needs strengthening as does international collaboration and synergy,” Bartlett noted.

He further stated: “Our challenge at the conference is to respond to these critical prerequisites for tourism development by addressing the need for public and private investment/finance and how it can be expanded through innovative linkages.”

Seiveright pointed out that hundreds of high level public and private sector leaders including Government ministers and heads of some of the biggest companies in the world will converge in Montego Bay for the conference.

“An important outcome of the conference will be the compilation of the Draft Montego Bay Declaration. From this will flow an action plan for tourism destinations to follow among other things. It is truly unprecedented and Bartlett being Chairman of the Board of Directors of UNWTO Affiliate Members has been a boon,” Seiveright said.