KINGSTON, Jamaica – United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary General HE Zurab Pololikashvili will participate in the highly anticipated second Global Tourism Resilience Conference in Montego Bay, St James, from February 16 to 17.

The two-day conference will be staged in the heart of the bustling tourism capital at the Montego Bay Convention Centre.

The Global Tourism Resilience Conference will include panel discussions, networking opportunities, presentations and lively debates on matters of building resilience in tourism. This group of experts in their collective fields will gather to collaboratively discuss issues that are central to future-proofing travel and tourism to various disruptions moving forward.

“We are setting the stage for another mega conference geared towards safeguarding our most valuable tourism industry. Building the capacity to respond to and recover from disruptions has become even more critical and the topics and expert thoughts that will be shared over two days will contribute to our resilience building,” said Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett.

HE Zurab Pololikashvili will be a key expert on the first day of the conference on Friday, February 16, on a panel that will be exploring ‘Funding Tourism Resilience’.

The panel will also include Dr Nigel Clarke, Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Jamaica; Sergio Díaz-Granados, Executive President Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean Women in tourism Resilience; Oscar Avalle, Country Representative, El Salvador and Northern Caribbean, Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean; Dona RegisProsper, Secretary-General, Caribbean Tourism Organization and Nataliya Mylenko, Lead Economist for the Caribbean, World Bank.

“I am looking forward to contributing to this conference which isn’t just about navigating challenges but about collectively shaping a future where destinations thrive amidst adversity, turning resilience into opportunity,” said HE Zurab Pololikashvili.

The first global tourism resilience conference was held at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica last year.

“The Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre continues to be a beacon of tourism resilience and this conference is a further step in the right direction in building capacity. Global disruptions have shown the need for us to build capacity in tourism as it remains one of the most vulnerable industries,” said Executive Director of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre, Professor Lloyd Waller.

As part of the conference agenda, on February 17, Global Tourism Resilience Day will be celebrated for the second time, recognizing the official adoption by the United Nations on February 6, 2022, of the resolution to observe the day each year. There will also be a tourism resilience awards gala to recognize individuals and organisations that have contributed to- building tourism resilience globally.