DR Wykeham McNeill has been assigned the day-to-day responsibilities for tourism, the Jamaica Tourist Board’s new board of directors was told at their first meeting yesterday.

At the same time, the board took the decision to “immediately” start searching for a new director of tourism who, when appointed, will share with the board, the responsibility of running the JTB.

The current director, Fay Pickersgill, is on vacation and will not renew her contract when it expires on February 1.

McNeill, the minister of state for industry and tourism, along with his boss, Aloun Assamba, attended yesterday’s meeting which he said was a good assembly.

“The meeting went very well. Everybody is energised,” he told the Observer last night.

Essentially McNeill will be responsible for the operational side of tourism, Jamaica’s largest foreign exchange earner and the industry which the administration admits holds the best potential for a quick reversal of Jamaica’s flagging economy.

The young junior minister, who held the same office in the previous administration, will also have responsibility for entertainment.

Yesterday’s meeting, a news release from the ministry said, also focused on:

* restructuring proposals for the JTB;

* an update on the financial position of the JTB; and

* a marketing programme for the approaching winter tourist season, which opens on December 15.

The new board was named last week and immediately welcomed by the industry which was obviously pleased that it included some of the best marketers in the leisure sector.

The board comprises:

* Paul Pennicook, president and CEO of Couples Resorts;

* Christopher Zacca, CEO of Air Jamaica;

* Zein Nakash, vice-president, marketing and environmental affairs, for SuperClubs;

* Carolyn Wright, who chairs the Negril chapter of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA);

* Josef Forstmayr, the JHTA president;

* O K Melhado, director, Manufacturers/Sigma Merchant Bank and a former JTB chairman;

* Jason Henzell, managing director, Jakes Hotels and Villas;

* Michael Muirhead, a senior executive at National Commercial Bank, who now chairs the JTB’s Finance Committee; and

* Ohene Blake, an IT specialist who is the project co-ordinator for business re-engineering at the Office of the Prime Minister.

Yesterday, the ministry announced that Muirhead was appointed to head the Finance and Audit Committee; Pennicook will chair the Marketing Committee, while Melhado will preside over the Restructuring Committee.