Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett on the weekend received two major awards for Jamaica from the prestigious World Travel Awards, which is in its 30th year, at the landmark Burj AL Arab in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Bartlett, also as founder and chair of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC), a thinktank based in Jamaica, handed out five Global Tourism Resilience Awards to two major Middle East corporations and three countries.

Jamaica was awarded, “World’s Best Family Destination” and “World’s Best Cruise Destination” before a large audience of government leaders and officials, global corporate titans, and travel stakeholders.

Meanwhile, the Global Tourism Resilience awards, handed out by Bartlett, were for entities and countries that have demonstrated global leadership, pioneering vision and innovation to overcome critical challenges and adversity.

The inaugural Global Tourism Resilience awardees are the nations of Qatar; The Maldives; The Philippines and UAE corporate powerhouses DP World, an Emirati multinational logistics company specialising in cargo logistics, port terminal operations, maritime services and free trade zone and Dnata, a leading global air and travel services provider offering ground handling, cargo, travel, catering and retail services in over 30 countries across six continents.

Bartlett was joined by Minister Matthew Samuda; Tourism Senior Advisor and Strategist, Delano Seiveright and Executive Director of GTRCMC Professor Lloyd Waller and Chairman of the Jamaica’s Climate Change Advisory Board, Professor Dale Webber were in Dubai on the occasion of COP 28, the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2023, with global leaders, governments and other leading stakeholders discussing how to limit and prepare for climate change.

The Global Tourism Resilience Awards fall under the stewardship of The Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) – an international think-tank headquartered in Jamaica, with satellites in Africa, Canada, and the Middle East.

Founded by Minister Bartlett in 2018, the GTRCMC aims to help tourism stakeholders worldwide prepare for, manage and recover from a crisis. This is accomplished through providing services such as training, crisis communications, policy advice, project management, event planning, monitoring, evaluation, research and data analytics.

The focus of the GTRCMC includes climate resilience, security and cybersecurity resilience, digital transformation and resilience, entrepreneurial resilience and pandemic resilience.