Travel advisors have been called therapists, curators, creators, and “architects of dreams.” Add another honorific: peacemakers. That’s according to Jamaica’s minister of tourism Edmund Bartlett, who spares no hyperbole in describing the important role travel agents play in the world.
Speaking at the recent annual Jamaica Tourist Board’s One Love Affair gala at the Princess Grand Resort in Jamaica, Bartlett told the agent audience, “Jamaica remains in your debt, for all that you’ve done over the years, for your enormous work. We have been hugely fortified by your energy, your strength, your commitment, your assiduity to duty, and most of all, your love.”
Moreover, he added, “Tourism is the greatest movement on earth and travel agents are part of it. Tourism brings people together and eventually creates peace (and) ensures that love, honesty, integrity, and happiness and joy permeates the world.”
Calling tourism “the great equalizer,” he maintained, “If everybody understood the precepts of tourism, can you imagine? There would be no wars, there would be no fighting. There would be no inequality.
“In tourism, you know what we do? We transfer wealth; (it’s) the greatest instrument for the transfer of wealth all around the world from the rich to the poor. As the planes fly, it brings the wealthy to destinations; as the cruise ships dock, it brings some wealth to the destinations.”
Citing Jamaica as an example, Bartlett said tourism has generated US$3 billion in the past three years, including 12 consecutive quarters of growth, which has ultimately resulted in the lowest unemployment rate (3.25%) in the country’s history.
“So, you understand the extent of the contribution you have made (in sending clients to Jamaica),” he stated. “We celebrate you deeply from our hearts.”
And blessed be the peacemakers.
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