Jamaicans.com: Jamaica’s GTRCMC wins World Travel Award

The Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) has been specially recognized at the World’s Leading Tourism Initiative at the just concluded World Travel Awards in Dubai. The award is one of the highest and recognized globally.

“The recognition by the leading authority that recognizes and rewards excellence in travel and tourism is heartfelt and highlights the outstanding work that this one-of-a-kind Centre for tourism resilience has been doing,” said Minister of Tourism and Co-Chair and founder of the GTRCMC, Hon Edmund Bartlett. Established in 2019, the GTRCMC assists travel and tourism organizations across the world to manage and recover from disruptions that threaten economies and livelihoods linked to tourism. It fosters policies to assist efforts of communities affected by disruptions due to climate change, natural disasters, pandemics, terrorism, economic shocks, political instability, and other threats. 

Co-Chair and former Secretary General of the United Nations World Tourism Organization, Taleb Rifai said, “This is truly an honor and further underscores the need for resilience building in tourism, an industry that is vulnerable to different shocks.” 

With headquarters at the University of West Indies, Kingston, the GTRCMC currently has offices in the Caribbean, Africa, and the Mediterranean and affiliates in over 42 countries. 

The organization has spearheaded a number of resilience-related projects since its inception. These include the Hurricane Maria and Irma Recovery Initiative, in which the Centre has mobilized regional support to assist with recovery efforts in Bahamas and the Cayman Islands. Its COVID-19 Social Awareness Campaign has raised awareness among tourism workers globally about the pandemic, while its Building Vaccine Confidence Project aims to reduce vaccine hesitancy among tourism workers globally. 

Other projects include the Global Tourism Resilience; Sustainability Initiative the Seismic Impact Assessment: St. Vincent and the Grenadines; and the Building Better Stronger Together Initiative – Community Tourism Capacity Building in Digital Marketing. 

“Since the Centre’s inception, we have working to raise awareness, build capacity and undertake innovative initiatives in tourism resilience in several countries around the world. To be honored in this way means that we are doing something right and this is indeed motivating,” said Executive Director of the GTRCMC, Professor Lloyd Waller.