KINGSTON, Jamaica — To increase international promotion of the upcoming United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)/Government of Jamaica and World Bank Group conference, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett will travel to Ethiopia, Dubai and Thailand to share the importance of the event and garner potential investors.

While in Thailand, Bartlett will participate in a press conference, scheduled for April 26, which will be jointly hosted by Dr Taleb Rifai, Secretary General of the UNWTO and a representative from the World Bank Group, a release from the ministry said Tuesday.

The press conference will highlight sustainable tourism as a catalyst for national development on an international platform, where key media houses and stakeholders will be present. In addition to discourse on partnerships for sustainable tourism for development, potential investors, donor agencies, the academic community and other tourism stakeholders will be targeted to attend the upcoming global conference, scheduled for November 27–29, 2017, at the Montego Bay Convention Centre.

The conference is dubbed Jobs & Inclusive Growth: Partnerships for Sustainable Tourism, Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett will travel to Ethiopia, Dubai and Thailand to share the importance of the event and garner potential investors.

Bartlett has also been invited to speak at one of the Summit Sessions on April 27 at the World Travel and Tourism Council’s (WTTC) 17th Global Summit in Bangkok. The topic of his presentation will be ‘Protecting people and places — can tourism be too much of a good thing?’ He will then meet with Thailand’s Minister of Tourism and the Chairman of the Thai Tourist Promotion Board, the ministry release said.

Prior to travelling to Thailand, the minister, who is also the chairman of the UNWTO’s executive council for affiliates, will attend a series of UNWTO meetings and engagements.

He will first travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on April 18 to attend the 59th Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for Africa and High-level Meeting on Chinese Outbound Tourism to Africa. He will then travel to United Arab Emirates, Dubai, to attend the 42nd Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for the Middle East and the UNWTO and Arabian Travel Market Ministerial Forum on Tourism’s contribution to sustainable and inclusive economic growth and diversification in the MENA region on April 24.

Bartlett is slated to return to Jamaica on April 29..