Bartlett to receive Pioneer Award
Published:Friday | November 8, 2019 | 12:44 AM
Hailed for his knack for championing global initiatives and forging strategic alliances, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett will be honoured with the Pioneer Award at the RJRGLEANER Communications Group Hospitality Awards on November 15.
Slated for the Montego Bay Convention Centre, Bartlett will be the second recipient of the prestigious award, which was first won by business mogul and chairman of Sandals Resorts International (SRI), Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart.
Hospitality Jamaica’s coordinator and president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Janet Silvera, said Bartlett was a powerful voice in world tourism.
“A tireless worker with a passion for the industry and for the persons who work within the industry, it is hard to envision a more deserving recipient,” said Silvera.
Bartlett was first appointed minister of tourism in 2007, serving until January 2012. He returned to the helm of the Ministry of Tourism following the February 2016 victory at the polls by the Jamaica Labour Party.
The recipient of the Pacific Area Travel Writers Association’s Tourism Minister of the Year award for Sustainable Tourism at a function in Berlin, Germany, back in April, has also been instrumental in the hosting of two major international conferences by Jamaica over the past two years that focused on sharing best practices and solutions to make the industry more resilient and sustainable.
During his first tenure as tourism minister, he became vice-chairman of the Executive Council of the UNWTO, representing the Americas; vice-president for the 19th General Assembly of the UNWTO held in South Korea in 2011; vice-president of the 2009 UNWTO Conference held in Kazakhstan; and chairman of CARICOM’s Subcommittee COTED in 2009 in the areas of tourism and transportation/civil aviation.
During his terms as minister of tourism, Bartlett has also served on the Council of Ministers for the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) and in the capacity of vice-chairman of the CTO from 2008 to 2009. This wealth of experience has made Bartlett a much-sought-after speaker in various fora.
A graduate of The University of the West Indies, where he majored in accounting, he has worked at the senior management level in the areas of marketing and sales as well as accounting for major multinational companies operating in Jamaica, prior to entering elective politics.
When contacted, Bartlett said it was with great humility and an appreciation for the hard work of “the outstanding team of workers at the Ministry of Tourism” that he would be accepting the RJRGLEANER Hospitality Jamaica Pioneer Award on November 16.
“The Pioneer Award is a very special accolade that I accept humbly on behalf of the staff at the Ministry of Tourism and all of our agencies, locally and internationally,” the minister said.
“I am also proud to be a part of the initiative that has Jamaica leading the way in the development of the first Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre. Given the globally recognised importance of tourism management, the centre positions Jamaica as a global thought leader in tourism resilience and crisis management and is thus a critical development enabler for countries around the world.”