Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett has endorsed the global call made by Prime Minister Andrew Holness for the official designation of February 17 as Global Tourism Resilience Day annually.

Holness made the call as he addressed the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday (September 22).

“We have been engaging countries across the world in our efforts to bolster resilience in global tourism and Jamaica is proposing the official designation of February 17th annually as Global Tourism Resilience Day,” the prime minister said.

Holness outlined that the “annual commemoration would serve to encourage a consistent examination of resilience-building in the tourism sector, in the face of persisting global disruptions to sustainable tourism and sustainable development.”

He encouraged “the global community to work towards commemorating the first Global Tourism Resilience Day in 2023.”

In supporting the call, Minister Bartlett, who officially launched Global Tourism Resilience Day during EXPO2020 Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) earlier this year, noted that: “The prime minister’s call represents the latest step by Jamaica in our push to have Global Tourism Resilience Day observed across the world each year.”

“This observance would assist in increasing the awareness and actions of global tourism stakeholders towards strengthening the industry’s capacity to effectively handle and recover speedily from major disruptions, such as pandemics and natural disasters,” he continued.

“It would also encourage larger states to provide support and assistance to small highly tourism-dependent countries in the area of resilience building” Bartlett mused further. 

The day, which is the brainchild of Bartlett, has received support from tourism stakeholders globally.

Meanwhile, in calling for the official designation of Global Tourism Resilience Day, Prime Minister Holness also stressed that “as a highly tourism-dependent country, in the most tourism-dependent region in the world, Jamaica has invested heavily in building resilience in the tourism sector,” adding that “during the pandemic, we pioneered the introduction of ‘resilient corridors’ on the island, which assisted greatly in fast-tracking the recovery for our tourism sector.”