by Donald Wood
Last updated: 8:45 AM ET, Thu May 11, 2023
The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) announced
that Jamaica
has been awarded its Destination Resilience Award for its recovery efforts
during the coronavirus pandemic and initiatives focused on tourism resilience.
Jamaica received the Destination Resilience Award for
addressing the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) 17
sustainable development goals. The island also was honored for subscribing to a
collaborative and partnership-focused approach.
“It is a pleasure to recognize my home country with this
destination resilience award as it validates the countless hours and effort
that went into the recovery through our public and private sector partners to
ensure the survival of tourism,” CHTA President Nicola Madden-Greig said.
At the onset of the COVID-19 emergency, Jamaica and its
tourism ministry created a recovery taskforce, which helped the country reopen
to international travelers in June 2020, with the borders never closing since.
Jamaican Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett accepted the
award on behalf of the island nation, saying that the health and safety
protocols implemented to mitigate the spread of the disease helped tourism’s long-term
recovery.
“This award is for my entire tourism team and all our
private and public sector partners who immediately saw the need to keep the
lifeblood of the country open,” Bartlett said. “From the minds and hard work of
the team, Jamaica was first out of the blocks on the road to recovery.
Last month, Jamaica announced it had experienced its biggest
and best winter tourism season in history this year and the island is on track
for a continued travel industry boom for the foreseeable future.
Between January and March of 2023, Jamaica
recorded 1.18 million visitors, Bartlett said, while opening Jamaica’s Sectoral
Debate in parliament. The visitor levels for early 2023 represent growth of
94.4 percent over the same period in 2022.
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