The Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association’s (CHTA) President, Nicola Madden-Greig, and the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s (CTO) Chairman, Kenneth Bryan, Minister of Tourism for the Cayman Islands, have joined with Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, to support the official designation of February 17 as Global Tourism Resilience Day.
The announcement follows the recent impact of hurricanes Fiona and Ian that damaged Puerto Rico and South Florida.
By joining these two important industry leadership groups representing the Caribbean region, an invitation was also extended to the rest of the world to help make Global Tourism Resilience Day a historical and annual observation.
“As the Caribbean is well-known to be the most tourism-dependent region on earth, having both CHTA and CTO join the call to support Global Tourism Resilience Day is critical to our efforts to build the sector back stronger,” said Jamaica’s Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett. “Their participation in the three-day summit to be held in Jamaica this coming February 2023 to celebrate the day will also be a very welcome one.”
“We must now truly harness the power of our knowledge, our human capital, and resources to overcome our challenges,” said CHTA President Nicola Madden-Grieg.
During the September 22 session of the United Nations General Assembly, Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, called for the observation of Global Tourism Resilience Day.
In accordance with Prime Minister Holness’ recommendation, Minister Bartlett has further proposed support for the establishment of a Global Resilience Fund. This fund will help destinations recognized as facing high vulnerability to disruptions, both natural and man-made, but have insufficient financial capacity to prepare for and quickly recover from disruptions.
Both the proposed observance of a Global Tourism Resilience Day and the Fund would be designed to help build a more resilient and sustainable tourism industry worldwide.
“We are stronger when unified, and I support Minister Bartlett’s call to focus on tourism resilience in the Caribbean. To mitigate the worst-case scenario, we must be proactive and deliberate. This will require support from political leaders in enacting the necessary legislation to adequately prepare for disasters of all types,” said the CTO Chairman, Kenneth Bryan.
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