Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has been elected chair of the Inter-American Committee on Tourism at the Organization of American States (OAS).

The news was confirmed during the ongoing United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) General Assembly in Madrid.

The World Tourism Organization is the United Nations’ specialised agency entrusted with the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. Its headquarters are in Madrid, Spain.

Accepting the role, Bartlett called on the region “to not accept what was, nor what is, but what must be” in order to overcome the issues presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

He encouraged UNWTO member states to work in partnership for the future of tourism, based on innovation and investment

The Inter-American Committees are subsidiary organs of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI), including the CITUR committee on tourism.

The committees’ purpose is to lend continuity to the sectoral dialogue on partnership for development in a given sector, follow-up on the mandates issued at the ministerial level, and identify multilateral cooperation initiatives.