TORONTO — Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett will today sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with George Brown College to establish a satellite office in Toronto for the Global Tourism Resilience Centre.

The GTRCMC is an initiative by the Jamaican government and the UNWTO, established in 2018 by Minister Bartlett and Dr. Taleb Rafai, the former Secretary General of the United Nations World Tourism Organization. The GTRCMC is a global think tank that focuses exclusively on building resilience and managing crises that disrupt tourism.

The main GTRCMC is based at the University of the West Indies’ Mona Campus in Jamaica.

The satellite centre at Toronto’s George Brown College is the first Canadian partner of the GTRCMC. The focus for the satellite centre is research and development, policy advocacy and communication management, program/project design and management, and training and capacity building in various areas.

Minister Bartlett says the partnership comes at a critical time for the travel and tourism industry, as it recovers from the pandemic and deals with economic fallout from the ongoing war in Eastern Europe.

He says the centre also focuses on research and anticipating the next inevitable crises and tourism disruptors, so that global tourism destinations can better prepare themselves and ensure tourism resilience.

“We are thrilled to embark on this partnership with George Brown College as they establish a GTRCMC Satellite Centre in Canada. This Centre will be a centre of excellence for research related to tourism resilience and an opportunity to exchange knowledge between our countries to benefit global tourism,” said Minister Bartlett. “This is a critical time in history for us to forge global partnerships in order to ensure the resilience of our industry.”

At today’s signing, taking place this morning at Jamaican Canadian Association Hall in North York, ON, Minister Bartlett will be joined by Dr. Gervan Fearon, President of George Brown College.

“This collaboration includes international learning exchange, joint teaching between our institutions, as well as industry-focused student exchange and applied research activities,” says Dr. Fearon, President of George Brown College. “This partnership provides the opportunity for our students, faculty and staff to contribute to tourism sustainability in a real and tangible way at a global level.”