Minister Of Tourism The Honorable Edmond Bartlett Honored by Indian Community

Jamaica News: The Honorable Edmond Bartlett Honored by Indian Community – Sunday, February 3, 2019, was a special day for The Honorable Edmond Bartlett. He was hosted at a luncheon in his honor by Lachu Ramchandani and Danny Galani at the Mainland China Restaurant located at Landmark Plaza in Ocho Rios. The event was to commemorate Mr. Bartlett as the 2017 World Minister of Tourism.

Attending were several high-level officials from Government, the business community and the police fraternity also to include journalists from several media houses. McKoys News journeyed to the event for sure and was able to have a chat with several officials attending including Minister Edmund Bartlett; Minister of Tourism ,Paula Llewelyn ; Director of Public Prosecutions, Marlene Malahoo Forte ; Attorney General, Kamina Johnson-Smith-Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, The Honorable  Delroy Chuck, Senator Aubin Hill, Delano Seivewright, Godfrey Dyer ,Head of Mission for the Embassy of Spain; Her Excellency Victoria Garcia Ojeda, Norma Walters, Mayor of St. Ann’s Bay, His Worship Michael Belnavis, Senior Superintendent of Police Smith, Christopher Issa, Joe Issa, Bobby Thakurani, Lachu  Ramchandani, Danny Galani , Frank Sondern; General Manager Riu Palace and Riu reggae, Javier Huertas ; General Manager Riu Ocho Rios and Ms Global Jamaica; Nastashia Mitchell.

The luncheon began with the serving of cocktails and authentic wines and on trays.T he Main course included rice and peas, curried chicken and curried goat, shrimp and salads. The patrons, however, enjoyed much more than Jamaican, Indian and Asian cuisine as entertainment was quite fabulous and smooth. The music was great and at the right pace. The ambience of the restaurant quite relaxing and calm while interesting and inspiring conversations were buzzing and the attire casual but quite elegant.b

The main speaker was, of course, The Honorable Edmund Bartlett who in his response to the several commendations noted that he represented a sector of the economy that exists because of all other sectors and that tourism would not have existed without the other sectors. He was quite humble in his statements and indicated also that  the Jamaican Tourism Industry has grown significantly and consistently for the past fifty years except on three occasions when several countries experienced the SARS outbreak, the 9/11 terrorists attacks and the great recession.”No other sector has grown fifty-fold” he was bold to say, adding that last year 1.4 billion people travelled across the globe spending in excess of 113 trillion dollars.”Ocho Rios is a great example of Transformation” he remarked and reported that a third of the 3.3 billion dollars earned in Jamaica from tourism came from the small fishing town of Ocho Rios. In closing, he was confident that tourism is new diplomacy and Small and Medium Tourism Enterprises (SMTE) represented 80% of Jamaica’s tourism and specially thanked Lachu Ramchandani, Danny Galani and the people of Ocho Rios for their significant contribution to this success. Lachu Ramchandani gave the vote of thanks to all those present recognizing Danny Galani as his partner and brother.

Another major event indeed in recognition of a great achiever hosted and attended by great people at a great venue- The Mainland China Restaurant.

By Andrew Forbes –  Mckoy’s Business News Reporter