EDMUND Bartlett — the member of parliament for St James East Central and Opposition spokesperson on foreign affairs — was on Monday unanimously elected as chairman of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s (UNWTO)’s executive council for affiliates.

Bartlett, who is also chairman of Consolidated Tourism Investment Consultants Ltd, a member of the UNWTO affiliate body which numbers 487 companies across 157 countries, was first elected to the executive council in September of this year at the General Assembly in Columbia.

Bartlett’s ascension to the chairmanship of prestigious organisation, is an unprecedented feat in the UNWTO as he is the first to serve on the executive of both the public and private sector arms of that organisation. He has served as second vice-chairman of the Council of Ministers during his tenure as tourism minister in 2011, and was succeeded in that post by current tourism minister, Dr Wykeham McNeill.

Bartlett will preside over a 23-member council and will oversee the four commissions of the UNWTO, spanning five continents.

Jamaica is the first country to have attained the chairmanship of both arms of the UNWTO in a single calendar year, as Minister McNeill served as chairman of the Council of Ministers up to September when his term of office ended, with Bartlett’s stint as chairman of the private sector arm now commencing.

Bartlett presided at his first meeting in London on Monday and will participate in other scheduled activities before returning to Jamaica on Thursday.