Jamaica Names Wykeham McNeill Minister of Tourism, Entertainment

Jamaica has named Dr. Wykeham McNeill, a longtime Jamaican parliament member, as the country’s new minister of tourism and entertainment, replacing Edmund Bartlett, who had served as the country’s minister of tourism since 2007. McNeill’s appointment follows the Dec. 29, 2011, election of People’s National Party (PNP) candidate Portia Simpson-Miller as prime minister.

McNeill previously served as minister of state in the Ministry of Tourism and Sports beginning in 2000. He also held the post of state minister in what was then called the Ministry of Tourism, Entertainment and Culture in 2007, during Simpson-Miller’s previous term as prime minster from 2006 to 2007. McNeill has held the post of opposition spokesman for tourism and entertainment in Jamaica’s parliament; he also served as chairman of the Public Administration and Appropriations committee and as opposition spokesman on the Jamaican Diaspora.

McNeill, a native of Kingston and a private practicing physician who attended medical school in Havana, Cuba, has also been a frequent critic of government tourism policy in local media. “[McNeill] has begun discussions with senior officials in the Ministry of Tourism and several of its key agencies to prepare for future initiatives under the new government,” according to a Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) statement. “With the addition of the entertainment portfolio the [tourism] ministry will be expanded,” McNeill said, “However this is very good as the synergies between tourism and entertainment are strong and potentially profitable.”