Minister Bartlett big on COVID protocols

3 years ago

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Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, says the Ministry is committed to ensuring that there is full compliance with the COVID-19 health and safety protocols for the sector.

“We are very conscious of the need for us to have stronger compliance in a number of areas and we will be taking steps in the Ministry to work with our stakeholders and partners to ensure that there is full compliance in every aspect of the protocols that we have established and agreed upon,”

he said.

The Minister was speaking at a recent Think Tank at the JIS head office in Kingston.

He said that care has to be taken to ensure that compliance is at the highest level, in order to safeguard the integrity of the destination.

“If one visitor gets an infection here, that becomes a problem overall.  So, we have an interest – we have more than a passing interest – in ensuring that compliance is had and that the systems we have put in place do in fact work,”

he noted.

The Minister said that Jamaica has developed some of the best protocols in the world and was the third country to receive the World Travel and Tourism Council’s (WTTC) Seal of Safe Travel Approval.

The resilient corridor concept, which features strict protocols, has been an effective tool in managing visitor movement and is now being looked at by many destinations as a solution to reopening their tourism industry.

Minister Bartlett noted that training and public education relating to the protocols were conducted with industry stakeholders, and personal protective equipment (PPE), soap dispensers/sanitising stations and other items provided to small enterprises in the industry as well as workers.