KINGSTON, Jamaica – Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, will be leading a newly-established Tourism Employment Enhancement Team, creating a global charter for employment with the recovery of the industry.

The first meeting took place Thursday, December 1, at the Royal Suite of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Riyadh, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, along the margins of the ongoing World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) Global Summit, which ended Thursday.

The charter will become the social contract between employers and employees, and create the basis for new labour market relationships within the global industry.

These include: Finn Partners, A World For Travel/Eventiz Media Group, EEA; Global Travel and Tourism Partnership (GTTP); Sustainable Hospitality Alliance; Global Travel and Tourism Resilience Council; Jacobs Media; Arventis; Sinclair and Partners; USAID (project); Chemonics International; and the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre at the University of West Indies (UWI).

The Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre was established to meet the need for a global tourism resilience initiative and was one of the major outcomes of the Global Conference on Jobs and Inclusive Growth: Partnerships for Sustainable Tourism in partnership with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the Government of Jamaica, the World Bank Group, and the Inter-American Development Bank.

WTTC’s annual Global Summit is the most influential travel and tourism event on the calendar. This year, industry leaders are gathering with key government representatives to continue aligning efforts to support the sector’s recovery, and move beyond to a safer, more resilient, inclusive and sustainable future.

The 22nd World Travel & Tourism Council Global Summit began on Monday, November 28, and ended on Thursday.

The Minister is expected to return home this weekend.