Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett will put forth a resolution to the United Nations (UN) for February 17th to be declared Global Tourism Resilience Day.

When the effects of the pandemic had subsided, Jamaica quickly bounced back to having a booming tourism sector when it reopened its airport to foreigners. This achievement was attributed to the ministry’s establishment of the first Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre.

While speaking yesterday morning (February 6) on the United States-based television programme Good Morning Washington, Bartlett shared that the news of his request to have a global tourism resilience day, highlighting the importance of being able to respond to global shocks.

“Just last night we heard of Turkey and Syria. Thousands of people’s lives are lost, property damage, how do we recover? How do we recover quickly? And how do we thrive after that?” he questioned.

At least 3,830 deaths have been confirmed after a powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake rocked Turkey and Syria early yesterday morning, followed by disastrous aftershocks.

The Ministry of Tourism indicated that Bartlett reached out to Bassam al-Sabbagh, Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations, yesterday at the UN Headquarters in New York to express sincere condolences and support for the recovery efforts in the earthquake-ravaged countries.

“Tourism is hugely impacted by these destructions. The artic blast which we just experienced, all these are part of the disruptive forces that causes economic shutdown and downturn. We’ve just come out of the pandemic, and that’s a good statement to how important it is to build capacity to be able to respond quickly and well Jamaica did that,” he noted.

The minister also shared that Jamaica was 120 per cent over its 2019 in terms of earnings from tourism which is only because of the resilient industry that was built overtime.

According to Bartlett, the resilient corridor “created a bubble which made safe visitor ship a possibility so that one million visitors can visit Jamaica just after we opened in June of 2020.”

An appeal was also made by the tourism minister for last-minute travellers to visit the island to experience its rich and diverse culture.

“Jamaica is a safe secure and seamless destination and we invite you to come down all of you, enjoy it. It is a wonderful place, the experience is lovely and we are based on three wonderful words food, music and love,” he stated.