Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett exposing his literary side

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett is Jamaica’s biggest tourism cheerleader. Every opportunity he gets he is singing and dancing about Jamaica’s tourism healthy status, products and the people and stakeholders who buttress the industry.

And since the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating impact on tourism, he is all about the resilience of the industry and the great speed with which the industry had bounced back, so much tourism officials the world over are following Jamaica’s lead.

So, when some people saw Bartlett’s name on the list of people to appear on stage for the 13th annual Jamaica Poetry Festival to be held on Sunday, August 13 at the Louise Bennett Garden Theatre in St Andrew they thought he would be the ‘guest speaker’ to speak gloriously about the gains that the industry is making. They were partially correct.

Minister Bartlett was not introduced as the guest speaker, but he seized the moment, and took some time to talk about his favourite topic, tourism resilience, before giving the audience an idea of what his books, one already published, and a few more in the process, are about. But he also made connection between the creativity of the Jamaican people and tourism. And he too has a creative side.

But before his debut performance at Jamaica Poetry Festival, Bartlett read an excerpt from a chapter he wrote in Tourism Resilience and Recovery for Global Sustainability and Development – Navigating COVID-19 and The Future, a book which he authored with Professor Lloyd Waller. He mentioned the disruption that COVID-19 had brought to the country, but also said, “Thankfully, the ministry and its agencies were able to successful migrate certain important arrangements, facilities and business events to virtual platforms.”

“The country’s strong presence in the virtual marketplace was affirmed by the fact that local hotels properties executed over 100 virtual weddings while last year’s staging of Jamaica’s Products Exchange (JAPEX) through weekly destination Webinars hosted by JTB (Jamaica Tourist Board) regional sales team and that was the largest in the history in the history of Jamaica,” the minister read.

The second book, to be published at the end of this month, is primarily about “resilience building to another dimension”. Thought Leadership on Tourism Resilience and Sustainability in the 21st Century is an all-encompassing study that captures Bartlett’s observations and insights about the changing nature of tourism resilience and sustainability. He said it delves deeply into the world’s tourism ecology, giving readers a fresh viewpoint on how to adapt to a dynamic industry. It is actually a collection of speeches that Bartlett had given all over the world.

An in-depth investigation into some facets of tourism from the importance of digital landscapes to the future of ocean economies, he said it is. It deals with a number of key areas such as resilience and sustainability for oceans economies, building Jamaica’s premier destinations, resilience tourism for sustainability, building tourism resilience, Jamaica’s landscape a viable place, advancing tourism in a digital world, international trade and tourism, promoting sustainability tourism, COVID and tourism, and how to build resilience in a multi-destination setting.

Decoding the Future of Tourism – Unravelling Emerging Trends and Possibilities is a third book, to be co-authored by Professor Waller. The minister closed with his poem, Tourism’s Call – Resilience Siren’s Song. He read:

“In Lands both near and far we roam/Find new sights, to leave our home/Tourism’s call, a siren’s song/A world united where we belong.

“But storms may come and times grow tough/The road ahead might seem quite rough/Resilience then, our guiding star/Sustains our world, no matter the scar.

“We adapt, we learn, we find our way/In travel’s dance we sway and sway/A journey worth is in the strive/in resilience, our globe stays alive.

“Tourism’s strength, a vital key/To global health and harmony/Sustainability’s firm embrace makes Earth a thriving, welcoming place.

“So, let us wonder, explore and see/with open hearts, minds wild and free/For in the face of strife we’ll find, a resilient soul, a world alive.” The end.

And, the audience applauded, the minister had now added poet to his already long resume.