Jamaica to host 2021 UNWTO regional meeting

Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer

Jamaica has been selected to host the 66th Meeting of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Regional Commission for the Americas in May 2021.

According to Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, who chairs the commission, the decision was taken on Thursday during the 65th meeting of the organisation for the event to be hosted in Montego Bay, St James.

The virtual meeting discussed, among other things, green investments for sustainable tourism and UNWTO activities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

In his address, Bartlett told participants that Jamaica and other countries that are deeply reliant on tourism will need to diversify their source markets and other industries.

This strategy, he said, would cushion against the effects of external disruptions such as pandemics, terrorism, and natural disasters.

The minister also highlighted opportunities resulting from the region’s COVID-19 response, which have compelled leaders to maintain approaches even beyond the current period, including targeted support and focus on MSMEs and multilateral partnerships.

“The application of existing, new, and emerging technologies for innovative responses to the challenges encountered during this period is testament that space remains to scale up the use of technology for increased efficiency,” he said.

“We simply cannot return to the situation that existed pre-COVID-19 … . The principles of multilateralism must, indeed, ring true for greater cooperation and collaboration at the regional level and, further, on the global stage.”

Bartlett argued that the region is facing the pandemic from a weaker position than the rest of the world, as evidenced by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), which had, before the COVID-9 outbreak, projected that the region would grow by a maximum of 1.3 per cent in 2020.

However, this forecast, he said, has been revised downwards, with gross domestic product now predicted to fall by at least 1.8 per cent.

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