Positive Tourism News

[Exile]

I've been signed up to this newsletter - courtesy of an anonymous friend -for sometime now that gives positive tourism news in the Caribbean. For those interested it is:

Positive Tourism News [newsletter@positivetourism.com]

[Lionpaw]

mi nuh want hear nuh positive news mon. mi want hear bout dudus and how JLP a sheg up di country.

[Historian]

Re: Positive Tourism News

mi nuh want hear nuh positive news mon. mi want hear bout dudus and how JLP a sheg up di country.

Lionpaw, you’re making me laugh !!

On a serious note, though, until there’s a way to be found to make tourism benefit all categories of the industry workers in Jamaica (as Assasin has been suggesting for years) and benefit the surrounding communities as well, only Ed Bartlett and other bigwigs within the Ministry of Tourism will be ecstatic about Jamaica’s benefits.

As a long-time player in the industry (for example, Errol Flynn was inviting his friends to Port Antonio from way back in the 1950s), Jamaica’s arrival numbers and income today are NOT impressive by any means! We like to talk about Jamaica and Cuba having the most impressive increases for the year 2009 in the region, but such talk is missing a vital element: annual pre-2008 and pre-2009 numbers. So while we gloat that major competitors like the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas suffered double-digit declines in 2009, the fact is that their stopover and cruise ship arrival totals were still much greater than Jamaica or Cuba’s!

Jamaica’s continued less-than-genuinely-impressive performance is unfortunate, and I am one of those individuals who have always firmly believed in and supported a vibrant tourism market/product as being potentially highly beneficial to Jamaica.

By the way, I’m still not highly impressed with those Usain Bolt ads I see every day on CNN and other major stations! I’m not sure what is lacking, but it’s a bit hard to digest the fact that it was produced by a major international advertising agency at a cost of several million US$.

[MissLondon]

Jamaica's biggest issue regarding tourism is the murder rate and the perception that Jamaica is a dangerous place. To be honest, your not going to see tourism benefit all sectors of society if tourists don't even leave their hotel.

When you look at Jamaica's murder rate and its size, the tourists numbers are very impressive, which other country has a thriving tourist industry but yet is one of the murder capitals of the world with only 2.7 million people?

Until there is a big decrease in the murder rate, the tourists arrivals are not going to reach Jamaica's full potential.

[MissLondon]

By the way, I’m still not highly impressed with those Usain Bolt ads I see every day on CNN and other major stations! I’m not sure what is lacking, but it’s a bit hard to digest the fact that it was produced by a major international advertising agency at a cost of several million US$.

I wasn't impressed either. It looked like all the other Jamaica commercials. No original thought.

[TDowl]

Den Mi nuh know de dude dat put eh out, nuh wan transplant from NYC via Panama, him thight wid de Hotel movers and shakers.

[Assasin]

Everything is relative. To have growth in this global recession is very good.

There are some positivie signs for tourism growth. The falmouth Pier may see more ships coming, now if the people of Trelawny are smart and protect the income they can make it a heaven for cruise visitors. The casino gambling law finally passed. The opening of the Boscobel Airpoort is another. Bartlett is working and seems genuinely concerned about growth and involving other sectors. One of the reason why Dominican Republic and Cuba use to beat we so badly is we priced ourselves out of the market. Since the recession we had to cut back on prices and some people get a better deal to visit.

The Bolt ad is like the same old commercial and they added him in. The thing is the one love ad was such a hit and they are afraid to try anything new.