DEJA Bremmer, student at Manning’s School, has emerged the winner of the Junior Minister of Tourism competition after participating in the finals of the public speaking competition held on August 21 at Sandals Royal Plantation, Ocho Rios. This is the second time that a Manning’s School representative has won the title.

In October, Bremmer will go on to represent Jamaica at the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s Youth Congress in the Turks and Caicos. In second place was Yeshima Thompson from Excelsior High School, and third place from Jose Marti Technical High was Olivia Rodney.

“I am extremely grateful and excited to be this year’s winner. I had a wonderful experience with the competition which involved training sessions and a tour of Kingston, which was a lot of fun,” expressed Bremmer. She noted that she looks forward to basking in all the experiences as the new junior minister and ultimately represent her country well at the youth congress and other activities that she will be engaged in as junior minister.

Raymond Bingham, staff advisor at the Manning’s School, is happy that the school has retained the junior minister title.

“Today’s competition was excellent, and I encourage students to participate. It gives them access to a lot of resources and helps to build self-confidence. We [Manning’s School] will continue to set the bar high and promote participation in the Tourism Awareness Action Club at the school,” he highlighted.

Hotel manager of Sandals Royal Plantation Sheldon James charged the finalists to continue making a difference through participating in activities like these which contributes to the powerful Brand Jamaica.

“To all the teachers and parents, continue to encourage and mould these students and let’s create the future ministers or any other profession,” he said. He further noted his pleasure in hosting such a relevant and important event that has provided students with the opportunity to know more about Jamaica’s tourism product.

The public speaking competition is open to students between the ages of 15-17 years and students must be members of their school’s Tourism Action Club to participate. The topics for this year’s staging focused on wellness tourism, accessibility tourism and building a resilient and sustainable tourism workforce.

Director of Tourism Donovan White expressed his delight with the growth, development and commitment of the finalists.

“All three finalists have shown tremendous improvement since round one. They have represented themselves and their schools extremely well and we hope with this experience, they will be ambassadors of Brand Jamaica and use their newfound knowledge to spread the valuable importance of tourism to the island.”

Meanwhile, Thompson expressed her appreciation for the exposure to Jamaica’s tourism product. She noted that the workshop and familiarisation tour added value to the competition experience and revealed aspects of public speaking that were unknown to her. Rodney also expressed her gratitude for all the knowledge and experience gained from the competition.

Bremmer received the winning trophy and certificate, a HP laptop and a day pass for four at Beaches, Ocho Rios while her staff advisor received a $20,000 gift certificate. The second and third place winners received a certificate of merit and Samsung tablets, while their staff advisors each received $10,000 gift certificates.