Bartlett listed among most influential in travel

Jamaica's Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has been named by travel trade website, Travel Pulse, as one of the most influential people in travel for 2016.

Bartlett has been selected alongside United States President Barack Obama; US President-elect Donald Trump; Arnold Donald, CEO of the world's largest cruise company, Carnival Corporation; United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz and British billionaire business tycoon Sir Richard Branson.

This list is published each year by staff members of Travel Pulse.

With an award-winning editorial staff, Travel Pulse publishes in-depth and unique content for travel agents and consumers. It is considered the world's leading travel trade website with a dedicated newsletter sent to more than 93,000 travel agents each morning.

Remarking on Bartlett's acknowledgement, Travel Pulse noted that, "Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica's tourism minister, returned to office as part of a new government, resuming the post he held from 2007 to 2011. Bartlett immediately launched an effort to catalyse Jamaica's already solid visitor growth in recent years, targeting an ultimate goal of double-digit annual visitor arrivals growth."

Endorsement of policies

Senior Adviser to the Tourism Minister Delano Seiveright pointed out that "the acknowledgement is yet another clear endorsement of the minister's growth and development policies and strategies for Jamaica's tourism sector".

Said Seiveright: "It also comes on top of a series of accolades for Minister Bartlett, including him being awarded the World's Leading Personality for Outstanding Services to Travel at the 23rd annual World Travel Awards (WTA) earlier this month in Southern Asia. Tourism is definitely on the move and will be the biggest driver of the Holness administration's growth agenda."

In commenting on the listing of Branson, the publication noted that he "has long been an influential person in the travel industry. But 2016 was another big year for Branson, who not only has us excited about the prospect of space tourism, but the potential to fly from New York to London in under three and a half hours with Boom Supersonic's supersonic airliner".

Meanwhile, for Obama, the publication stated that he "definitely had an influence on travel in 2016 when it comes to Cuba - one of his latest actions was to lift the ban on one of the most iconic forbidden souvenirs for Americans: Cuban cigars".