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http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum..._TOP_TEAM_.asp
Tourism needs a top team
We can pull 10 million visitors a year
Franklin Johnston
Friday, May 01, 2009
Tourism is our saviour. We would be on the bone of our glutaeus maximus but for it. I hear the ritual recitation of tourism figures and marvel at my loyalty to these unambitous people.
We should be targeting seven to 12 million visitors - not including cruisers. Tourism needs our best leaders and resources. Instead, we have mini czars to whom an increment is ecstasy and a decrement is shame - a sick political numbers game. Visitors are valued as statistics, a photo op and a spend of US$150 per head, not as people. Tourists are regular people who swipe the credit card, enjoy, go back home to pay off the debt with good memories. The very term "tourist industry" has a hard, impersonal edge - it is not us - and the transfer of this term from planning gives cover to many ugly practices. Tourism is people visiting people and places they like. The visitor is not a money tree, does not visit to solve our woes or to be mined as bauxite and ground up as sugar cane.
Our tourism is historic and elegant - Errol Flynn, James Bond and an unnamed host. We were equal first with Cancun and Cuba. We squander the patrimony, as living "under the circumstances" is for losers. Tourism needs courage and risk-taking. The day my bank told me they would honour salary cheques for my staff, but not for me the entrepreneur, was the beginning of my wisdom. A winner who builds a used-car empire from scratch on raw brash and bravado can reinvent our tourism and get us seven million visitors. Hawaii is like us and gets 10 times its population in visitors. Cabinet should give MP Vaz this challenge.
There is a patent disconnect between us and our visitors. Our people have gone awry. Old school is instinctive, caring and serve without servility; not the youth. We have more medals but are poorer than our neighbours - even blockaded Cuba and our people are bitter. Poor education causes them to blame their poverty incorrectly on people like our visitors and some lash out and become predators on tourists.
Here are some issues for Cabinet and the nation:
* Our Tourism Ministry and agencies are too vocal and visible. They do good work but tourism is not about government. They should rebrand, work low-key and let frontline people, goods and services speak for us. Who knows the tourism agencies and czars of New York's or London's very successful tourism? The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) is the bedrock of rural British tourism. It benefits from tax breaks and incentives - no mention of "tourism"; it is virtually invisible but very effective.
* We monetise our visitors. We all want a piece of them and some just take. We must assert tourism's humanity. For God's sake, only bureaucrats should say "tourist industry". Tourists are friends. Even the diaspora feels the "industry" pressure. They too are obscenely monetised. Leaders spread this "swine virus", we catch it and even the police get their share of the "industry" when they spot-check visitors' rental cars.
* Let's pioneer "funerary" tourism. We marry them; why not bury them? Unlike marriage, death is a growth sector and visitors love our funerals and wakes. When Halls Delight village does a "send-off", God listens. We sing, "trump" the coffin shoulder high up the hill; carried by men, then women, youth and a final crescendo as the strong lift the casket overhead; then the white rum - an event to die for! Send the video to PBS and America will come and they'll take back the urns. Let's think, quantum tourism growth!
* We sexualise our visitors. Officials turn a blind eye. Today "rent a dread" is cool, but by 2015 we may be gnashing our teeth. Is this the gateway to paedophilia, geriaphilia, transgender, all-gender sex? Do we want sex tourism? Minister, we can't hear you!
* Casino gambling is a non-issue. From the framing of our constitution to this day our politicians do not trust us. Don't listen, watch grass-roots leader - it's so far and no more for the poor. We have no say on serious matters like hanging, ganja or the Appeal Court. Norman Manley alone trusted us and he gave us a voice on West Indian Federation. The two-party cartel controls our constitution and they will do as they wish with casinos. Great men take great risks - Garvey lost, Armstrong reached the moon, both made history. If you never had a flutter, adrenaline pumping at the thundering hooves of your horse, heartbroken at the finish line, you are not ready for life and love. Stay conscious!
Dr Franklin Johnston is an international project manager with Teape-Johnston Consultants, currently on assignment in the UK.
franklinjohnston@hotmail.com
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/colum..._TOP_TEAM_.asp
Tourism needs a top team
We can pull 10 million visitors a year
Franklin Johnston
Friday, May 01, 2009
Tourism is our saviour. We would be on the bone of our glutaeus maximus but for it. I hear the ritual recitation of tourism figures and marvel at my loyalty to these unambitous people.
We should be targeting seven to 12 million visitors - not including cruisers. Tourism needs our best leaders and resources. Instead, we have mini czars to whom an increment is ecstasy and a decrement is shame - a sick political numbers game. Visitors are valued as statistics, a photo op and a spend of US$150 per head, not as people. Tourists are regular people who swipe the credit card, enjoy, go back home to pay off the debt with good memories. The very term "tourist industry" has a hard, impersonal edge - it is not us - and the transfer of this term from planning gives cover to many ugly practices. Tourism is people visiting people and places they like. The visitor is not a money tree, does not visit to solve our woes or to be mined as bauxite and ground up as sugar cane.
Our tourism is historic and elegant - Errol Flynn, James Bond and an unnamed host. We were equal first with Cancun and Cuba. We squander the patrimony, as living "under the circumstances" is for losers. Tourism needs courage and risk-taking. The day my bank told me they would honour salary cheques for my staff, but not for me the entrepreneur, was the beginning of my wisdom. A winner who builds a used-car empire from scratch on raw brash and bravado can reinvent our tourism and get us seven million visitors. Hawaii is like us and gets 10 times its population in visitors. Cabinet should give MP Vaz this challenge.
There is a patent disconnect between us and our visitors. Our people have gone awry. Old school is instinctive, caring and serve without servility; not the youth. We have more medals but are poorer than our neighbours - even blockaded Cuba and our people are bitter. Poor education causes them to blame their poverty incorrectly on people like our visitors and some lash out and become predators on tourists.
Here are some issues for Cabinet and the nation:
* Our Tourism Ministry and agencies are too vocal and visible. They do good work but tourism is not about government. They should rebrand, work low-key and let frontline people, goods and services speak for us. Who knows the tourism agencies and czars of New York's or London's very successful tourism? The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) is the bedrock of rural British tourism. It benefits from tax breaks and incentives - no mention of "tourism"; it is virtually invisible but very effective.
* We monetise our visitors. We all want a piece of them and some just take. We must assert tourism's humanity. For God's sake, only bureaucrats should say "tourist industry". Tourists are friends. Even the diaspora feels the "industry" pressure. They too are obscenely monetised. Leaders spread this "swine virus", we catch it and even the police get their share of the "industry" when they spot-check visitors' rental cars.
* Let's pioneer "funerary" tourism. We marry them; why not bury them? Unlike marriage, death is a growth sector and visitors love our funerals and wakes. When Halls Delight village does a "send-off", God listens. We sing, "trump" the coffin shoulder high up the hill; carried by men, then women, youth and a final crescendo as the strong lift the casket overhead; then the white rum - an event to die for! Send the video to PBS and America will come and they'll take back the urns. Let's think, quantum tourism growth!
* We sexualise our visitors. Officials turn a blind eye. Today "rent a dread" is cool, but by 2015 we may be gnashing our teeth. Is this the gateway to paedophilia, geriaphilia, transgender, all-gender sex? Do we want sex tourism? Minister, we can't hear you!
* Casino gambling is a non-issue. From the framing of our constitution to this day our politicians do not trust us. Don't listen, watch grass-roots leader - it's so far and no more for the poor. We have no say on serious matters like hanging, ganja or the Appeal Court. Norman Manley alone trusted us and he gave us a voice on West Indian Federation. The two-party cartel controls our constitution and they will do as they wish with casinos. Great men take great risks - Garvey lost, Armstrong reached the moon, both made history. If you never had a flutter, adrenaline pumping at the thundering hooves of your horse, heartbroken at the finish line, you are not ready for life and love. Stay conscious!
Dr Franklin Johnston is an international project manager with Teape-Johnston Consultants, currently on assignment in the UK.
franklinjohnston@hotmail.com
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