14 NOV 2018: Pat yourself on the back, travel colleagues, for if Jamaica’s minister of tourism is to be believed – and he is – the travel industry is a force for good in the world, and the people in it truly special.

“Tourism is a culture, not an industry,” Edmund Bartlett told delegates at the recent JAPEX travel trade show in Montego Bay. “It’s more than an industry. There are people in it who relate that we have morals, and we have totems and symbols and systems, and we relate to each other and we build relationships, and we cross borders and we transform lives and people and things.

“Very few industries can be categorized in that way. Most industries are peculiar to particular situations or products or resources, but we embrace everything: glory, diversity, we embrace differences and we respect people. What a wonderful culture tourism is.

“That culture enables a level of interaction and economic growth and inclusiveness,” he continued. “And destinations are structured to do just that.”

Including his own.

“Jamaica, in my mind,” he said, “is one of the best destinations to give that sense of culture and that sense of inclusiveness, which is inherent in the desires of all our human brothers and sisters.”