Month: September 2023
JOINT PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT
The third Global Resilience Conference will be held in the City of Malaga, Spain on 16 and 17 February 2024
Following a meeting in Cape Town on 4 April 2023 during the ITIC-WTM African Tourism Investment Summit, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, Minister of Tourism of Jamaica and Co-chair and Founder of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre GTRCMC is pleased to announce that next year’s Global Tourism Resilience Conference will be held in the City of Malaga on 16 and 17 February.
17 February has been proclaimed by the United Nations as the Global Tourism Resilience Day, an initiative spearheaded by Hon. Edmund Bartlett, Minister of Tourism of Jamaica and voted by 94 nations at the General Assembly of the UN on 4 February 2023. This United Nations proclamation culminated in the second edition of the Global Tourism Resilience Conference from 15 to 17 February 2023 in Kingston, Jamaica.
GTRCMC and its partners have united their forces to advance the capacity of countries and especially of the tourism industry across the world, to enhance their preparedness and response to the increasingly complex risk scape resulting from climate change and natural hazards.
Hosting the Global Tourism Resilience Day 2024 in Malaga, from left to right the Spanish Ambassador to South Africa HE Raimundo Robredo Rubio along with the two deputy Mayors Jacobo Florido, Susana Carillo and the Director of Tourism Jonathan Gomez-Puzon of Malaga as well as ITIC group CEO Ibrahim Ayoub with Hon Edmund Bartlett Founder and Chairman of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre.
This initiative shows the commitment of GTRCMC to host the conference in the City of Malaga which is also known as the European Capital of Smart Tourism.
The project is a collaboration of ITIC, GTRCMC and the City of Malaga and such a partnership will not only enable countries to harness disruptions but also to attract more sustainable investment flows forging a more resilient and prosperous future for all nations.
Carmen Roberts
Presenter The Travel Show
BBC World News
Carmen Roberts is a presenter on The Travel Show seen on BBC World. For the past 22 years, Carmen has worked for BBC World TV in London, Singapore and Tokyo covering a wide variety of topics including news, business, travel and technology and reported from over 80 countries around the world.
Carmen has worked on high profile BBC programs such as Hard Talk, Click, Fast Track, Asia Business Report, World Business Report, Talking Movies and general BBC news programs. During her time in London, Carmen also worked for CNN, Sky News, Associated Press TV as well as the London New Network.
After the Asian Tsunami on Boxing Day 2004, Carmen cut short her holiday in Langkawi, Malaysia to report from the devastated resort town of Phuket in Thailand.
Carmen has produced a program aboard the world’s longest flight, filmed at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl and reported from one of the world’s most secretive countries, North Korea.
Born in Singapore, her father was from New Zealand and her grandparents were Scottish. However, Carmen grew up on Australia’s Gold Coast and moved to London in 2000. Carmen has lived in Singapore, and Tokyo and is now based in the UK with her husband and three children.
Hon. Edmund Bartlett
Minister of Tourism, Jamaica and Chairman,
Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC)
Recognized for his wide-ranging expertise and accomplishments in the political arena, Honourable Edmund Bartlett has given over thirty-five years of service to Jamaica, working both in the Senate and in the House of Representatives.
Mr. Bartlett was first appointed Minister of Tourism in 2007, serving until December 2011. Prior to this appointment, he already had a solid track record of service as an outstanding legislator in central government in both Chambers of Parliament. While serving in the shadow Cabinet following his first stint as Tourism Minister, Mr. Bartlett traveled the world forging alliances with strategic partners for global initiatives. He returned to the helm of the Ministry of Tourism following his party’s victory in Jamaica’s February 2016 general election.
As one of the world’s leading Tourism Ministers, Mr. Bartlett has represented Jamaica regionally and internationally and currently chairs the Board of Affiliate Members of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). During his first tenure as tourism minister he served as Vice Chairman of the Executive Council of the UNWTO, representing the Americas. He is the first to serve on the executive of both the public and private sector arms of this prestigious organization. Mr. Bartlett has also served on the Council of Ministers for the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and as Vice Chairman of CTO. This wealth of experience has made him a much sought-after speaker at tourism-related fora.
Mr. Bartlett is an ardent proponent of public private partnerships (PPPS), which he considers essential to the sustainable development of the tourism industry. These alliances span the various sectors, locally and internationally, that make up tourism, including transportation, agriculture and manufacturing. Some of these partnerships have taken the form of foreign direct investment, particularly in the area of accommodation.
Tourism has been positioned by Mr. Bartlett as a catalyst for economic growth and the transformation of communities. He has established five networks (Gastronomy, Shopping, Health and Wellness, Sports and Entertainment, and Knowledge) to fuel growth and initiated the Tourism Linkages Network within the Ministry to strengthen sustainable linkages between tourism and other sectors of the economy.
The region has also benefited from Mr. Bartlett’s innovative thinking, as he views other Caribbean and Latin American destinations not as Jamaica’s competitors but as partners that can use their combined tourism offerings to attract more visitors to experience multi-destination tourism. He has taken bold steps to have this facilitated under a special Memoranda of Understanding between nations in the region.
Mr. Bartlett has copped numerous awards. He was the recipient of the 2016 Caribbean Tourism Minister of Distinction award at the recent African Diaspora World Tourism Awards. He was also awarded Caribbean’s Leading Personality for Outstanding Services to Tourism at the 23rd World Travel Awards in 2016. In 2012, Mr. Bartlett was conferred with the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander (CD) for outstanding and important services to Jamaica and in 2010, was conferred with the Commander of Number of the Order of Civil Merit of Spain on the order of the King of Spain.