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Minister Bartlett participates in WTTC Global Summit in Mexico

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Jamaica Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, has joined other global tourism decision-makers in Mexico this weekend, for the World Travel & Tourism Council’s (WTTC) Global Summit 2021. The event is being organized in partnership with the Government of Quintana Roo, under the theme “Uniting the World for Recovery” and runs from April 25-27 in Cancun.

While in Mexico, the Minister will be participating in a number of meetings with key global and industry leaders such as Minister of Tourism for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Al-Khateeb; Former President of Colombia and recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize, Juan Manuel Santos; Chris Nassetta, President and CEO of Hilton and WTTC Chair as well as President and CEO of Carnival Corp. & Plc (Cruise), Arnold W. Donald.

The summit will also enable Minister Bartlett and other international tourism sector representatives to finalize discussions undertaken by the WTTC, regarding the level of support to be provided to volcano affected Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. This follows recent discussions during a WTTC meeting chaired by Minister Bartlett, involving Hon. Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Mr. Bartlett will also be discussing multi-destination tourism and the strategies that are to be finalized for implementation, with representatives from the Dominican Republic, Panama, Mexico, and Costa Rica.

Jamaica Tourism Minister Bartlett will join President & CEO of the U.S Travel Association, Roger Dow, Yucatán Governor, Mauricio Vila Dosal; and Minister of Foreign Trade & Tourism for Peru, Claudia Cornejo, on April 27, for a panel discussion. The session will focus on the role of states in enabling their destinations to grow sustainably and inclusively, while also ensuring the sector can reach its social impact potential.

Organizers have stated that there will be stringent health and hygiene protocols in place, including on-site testing, restricted capacity to ensure physical distancing, and extensive outdoor activities, to ensure the wellbeing of all attendees. Additionally, they have introduced strict measures to create a bubble and strongly recommend attendees stay in the Moon Palace complex, which will play host to the event.

WTTC’s annual Global Summit is the most influential Travel & Tourism event on the calendar, where the highest-level industry leaders meet with key government representatives to take action on the biggest and most important issues across the international agenda. This year, the Global Summit will be exploring the challenges ahead and providing a platform for the recovery of the sector.

It is taking place in a hybrid format, allowing persons to watch the sessions online via a virtual platform. The in-person Summit is an invitation-only event for WTTC Members, Government Ministers, and chosen VIP guests. Minister Bartlett left the island on April 25 and is slated to return on April 28.

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Media contact:

Corporate Communications Division

Ministry of Tourism

64 Knutsford Boulevard

Kingston 5

Telephone: 920-4924,

Fax: 920-4944

Or

Kingsley Roberts

Senior Director, Corporate Communications

Ministry of Tourism

64 Knutsford Boulevard

Kingston 5

Tel: 920-4926-30, ext.: 5990

Cell: (876) 505-6118

Fax: 920-4944

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African Tourism Board shined again, again and again

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African Tourism Board executives shined last week during the World Travel Market, the Tourism Resilience Council meeting, the International Tourism Investment summit, WTTC meeting, PATA meeting, the UNWTO Ministerial Meeting, the Global Tourism Resilience Board Meeting and during the SunX event, the ETOA Brexit discussion. All of this was part of a busy agenda attended by executives of the newly formed African Tourism Board.

ATB executives, patrons, advisory board members and ambassadors including Cuthbert Ncube, Doris Woerfel, Juergen Steinmetz, Simba Mandinyenya, Dr . Taleb Rifai,  Hon. Najib Balala, Hon. Edward Bartlett, Dov Kalmann, Hon.Memunatu Pratt, Graham Cooke,  Tony Smyth, Prof. Geoffrey Lipman, Karen Hofmann, Daniela Wagner, Hisham Zazou, were seen also representing the African Tourism Board flag during a full week of tourism activities in the British capital last week.

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Hon. Minister Pratt
Tony Smith
Cuthbert Ncube and Hon. E Bartlett
Hon Najib Balala, Doris Woerfel and Cuthbert Ncube
Prof. Geoffrey Lipman
The African Tourism Board is an NGO based in Pretoria, South Africa with a philosophy to have tourism as a catalyst for unity, peace, growth, prosperity, job creation for the people of Africa -with a vision where Africa becomes one tourist destination of choice in the world.
More information on the African Tourism Board: www.africantourismboard.com

MEDIA CONTACT: TravelMarketingNetwork, 954 Lexington Ave. #1037, New York, NY 10021 USA, PH: (+1) 718-374-6816, [email protected]   

Geoffrey Lipman joins Honors Circle African Tourism Board

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Professor Geoffrey Lipman accepted to join the Honors Circle and Advisory Board of the African Tourism Board (ATB)

The certificate was handed to Professor Lipman by Doris Woerfel, CEO of ATB after the UNWTO Ministerial event at World Travel Market in London last week.

Professor Geoffrey Lipman leads SUN. Former top exec in IATA, WTTC and UNWTO, Geoffrey is currently also president of the International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP)  and the Green Growth Travelism Institute (GGTI), as well as a Visiting Professor at Hasselt University, Belgium & Victoria University Australia.

Professor Lipman has been a champion for African Tourism for decades. He founded the STEP program at UNWTO when he was Deputy Secretary-General of the organization.

Lipman said: “Happy to join this excellent program for Africa and help bring Climate Friendly Travel across the continent. Watch out for SUNx Malta African Earth Lung Alliance in 2020 to help save the second-largest rainforest on the planet.”

The African Tourism Board’s philosophy is to have tourism as a catalyst for unity, peace, growth, prosperity, job creation for the people of Africa -with a vision where Africa becomes one tourist destination of choice in the world.

Geoffrey Lipman joins Honors Circle African Tourism Board
Prof. Geoffrey Lipman and Doris Woerfel, CEO of ATB

MEDIA CONTACT: TravelMarketingNetwork, 954 Lexington Ave. #1037, New York, NY 10021 USA, PH: (+1) 718-374-6816, [email protected]   

Minister Bartlett addresses global tourism leaders at 2019 World Travel and Tourism Council

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As a part of a panel of the 2019 World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), held on Tuesday, June 11 in New York City, Minister of Tourism, Honorable Minister Edmund Bartlett spoke about the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR), and how private-public partnerships serve as catalysts for economic growth and the transformation of local communities in tangible ways.

Minister Bartlett, who participated in a panel discussion titled “From Doing CSR to Being CSR,” said, “CSR must seek to create the balance between the idea of ‘me,’ and the definition of ‘we,’.” The Minister added, “In Jamaica we are working closely with our private sector partners to ensure that the ‘we,’ – meaning the residents of Jamaica – will experience the benefits of social and economic resilience. From our point of view, CSR is about enhancing and improving the quality of our lives locally.”

Minister Bartlett has been an ardent supporter of engaging the private sector to advance the sustainable development of tourism in Jamaica and globally. Under his leadership, Jamaica’s Ministry of Tourism has formed private-public partnerships and alliances that span a range of sectors, including transportation, agriculture, health and wellness, manufacturing, and small business. Some of these partnerships have taken the form of foreign direct investment, particularly in the area of accommodation.

In Jamaica and across the Caribbean, several international resorts are engaging in CSR practices in areas such as community outreach, housing renovations and donations to local schools. In Jamaica, Sandals Resorts is an example of how the private sector can take CSR one step further – beyond corporate philanthropy – by developing sustainable projects with direct linkages to local communities.

For example, Sandals Resorts has been working with local Jamaican farmers by donating seeds, and then offering a direct market for the reaped produce. In fact, 90 percent of all produce used in Jamaica is procured locally. Sandals Resorts is also investing in climate-related agricultural training at trade schools and in university programs across the country.

“The people of Jamaica are seeing the benefits of these CSR models, and so we are committed to expanding these social enterprise initiatives with our private sector partners to enhance Jamaica’s capacity to derive more from the growth of tourism in our country,” said Minister Bartlett.

The WTTC represents the travel and tourism private sector globally. Its members include more than 170 CEOs, Chairmen and Presidents of the world’s leading Travel & Tourism companies from all geographies, covering all industries.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jamaica Ministry of Tourism, Corporate Communications, 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, Tel: 920-4926-30, Fax: 920-4944

eTN becomes a SUNx SDG 17 Partner calling for Climate Sanity in Tourism on Earth Day

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In nature, nothing exists alone is the message for Earth Day 2019. Announcing the public launch of its “SDG17 Partners Program” on Earth Day 2019, Professor Geoffrey Lipman co-founder SUNx, calls and president of the International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP) asks the Travel & Tourism sector to join its “Plan For Our Kids” and take the “Climate Sanity” Pledge.

Professor Lipman, former Executive Director at IATA, President of WTTC and Assistant Secretary-General UNWTO, said:

“I’m confident that Travel & Tourism will play a leadership role in the global shift to a New Climate Economy: we just need a pathway for change and that lies in our faith in the next generation”

SUNx a legacy for Planetary Champion Maurice Strong has created a “Plan For Our Kids”, aiming to recruit 100,000 STRONG Climate Champions to advance its vision of a no Carbon 2050 sector totally compliant with the evolving goals of the Paris Accords.

He added “During the past year we have seen a welcome intensification of the pressures for a new commitment to Climate Sanity, which stops discussing whether climate change is existential and just gets on with solutions. That’s the common message from Greta Thunberg’s Friday’s for Futures and AOC’s Green New Deal: it’s the message from Earth Scientists and Nobel Economists: it’s the plea from Sir David Attenborough.

”Lipman concluded “SDG 17 Partners will share our long-term vision on the fact that Climate Change is eXistential and that we have to act NOW, as if this Earth Day is the first day of the rest of our lives. We all have different starting positions, based on our separate realities: but we have a shared goal of meeting the Paris Agenda and together taking a “No Carbon 2050 moonshot”. We can deliver Climate Friendly Travel ~ measured plans: green growth: 2050 no carbon proof “

Juergen Steinmetz president of the eTN Corporation said “We are proud to become a SUNx SDG 17 Partner and provide preferential support for this great cause. As long as I have known Geoffrey Lipman, he has been drumming home the message that Climate Change is eXistential and that if we don’t fix it now, it will fix us. We are in, and will use all our links, like ICTP and the African Tourism Board to support Climate Friendly Travel. going forward”.

For more on SUNx and its SDG 17 Partnership Program please contact: go to www.thesunprogram.com

What is Earth Day?

The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. The passage of the landmark Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and many other groundbreaking environmental laws soon followed. Twenty years later, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in more than 190 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage.

On April 22, 1970, millions of people took to the streets to protest the negative impacts of 150 years of industrial development.

In the U.S. and around the world, smog was becoming deadly and evidence was growing that pollution led to developmental delays in children. Biodiversity was in decline as a result of the heavy use of pesticides and other pollutants.

The global ecological awareness was growing, and the US Congress and President Nixon responded quickly. In July of the same year, they created the Environmental Protection Agency, and robust environmental laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, among many.

One billion people

Earth Day is now a global event each year, and more than 1 billion people in 192 countries now take part in what is the largest civic-focused day of action in the world.

It is a day of political action and civic participation. People march, sign petitions, meet with their elected officials, plant trees, clean up their towns and roads. Corporations and governments use it to make pledges and announce sustainability measures. Faith leaders, including Pope Francis, connect Earth Day with protecting God’s greatest creations, humans, biodiversity and the planet that we all live on.

Earth Day Network, the organization that leads Earth Day worldwide, has chosen as the theme for 2018 to End Plastic Pollution, including creating support for a global effort to eliminate primarily single-use plastics along with global regulation for the disposal of plastics.  EDN is educating millions of people about the health and other risks associated with the use and disposal of plastics, including pollution of our oceans, water, and wildlife, and about the growing body of evidence that plastic waste is creating serious global problems.

From poisoning and injuring marine life to the ubiquitous presence of plastics in our food to disrupting human hormones and causing major life-threatening diseases and early puberty, the exponential growth of plastics is threatening our planet’s survival.

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