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Jamaica dips in tourism competitiveness

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  • #1

    Jamaica dips in tourism competitiveness

    Jamaica dips in tourism competitiveness

    Published: Sunday | March 17, 2013 2 Comments


    Doctor's Cave Beach, Montego Bay, February 2011. A sunny day at the beach.-Photo by Daedreen Peterkin





    [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]Jamaica[/COLOR][/COLOR], renowned for its music and sports, dipped two spots to 67 among 140 countries in the Travel & [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]Tourism[/COLOR][/COLOR] Competitiveness Report 2013 due to poor scores in culture and environmental sustainability.At the same time, local tourism [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]earnings[/COLOR][/COLOR] and jobs increased, according to the biennial report published by the World [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]Economic[/COLOR][/COLOR] Forum.
    The island scored its worst sub-ranking in culture at No 108 of 140. It was worse than safety and security at 95 and environment sustainability at 98.
    The report on Jamaica compiled for the World Economic Forum by Mona School of Business and Management indicated that tourism contributed US$3.99 billion to the [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]economy[/COLOR][/COLOR] in 2012 up from US$3.89 billion in 2010.
    Additionally, the report stated that tourism jobs increased from 263,000 to 285,000 in 2012.
    Director of Tourism John Lynch was overseas and said to be unavailable for comment on the report. Similarly, efforts at comment from the business school were unsuccessful.
    The results on the cultural rankings surprised researcher Clover Johnston, who argued that Jamaica is culturally rich but that many tourists are ignorant of its scope.
    "It is rich, but it is not packaged in a structured way. Also the calendar of cultural activities is not sufficiently circulated by Jamaica Tourist Board," said Johnston who added that travellers - particularly backpacking Europeans and Japanese - tend to seek out cultural events while tourists largely remain in all-inclusive resorts.
    Johnston spoke in her capacity as a researcher and declined to associate her comments with the large tour she manages.
    unsafe for tourists
    "The all-inclusive guests - those people are not pushed to come out of the hotel. And the tour operators that bring guests tend to bring them to Devon House ... but they do not send them to many others," she said adding that the best of the culture tends to be linked with the inner city.
    "There is still an undercurrent that certain parts of the country are not safe for tourists," she added explaining that tourists tend to go to Reggae Sumfest and Rebel Salute but not much else musically.
    "I suggest people come to Jamaica at the end of January. So they come for Rebel Salute and segue to the Marley events, JARIA concerts and the Dennis Brown concerts in February. So you would have got a solid diet of reggae music," she said.
    steven.jackson@gleanerjm.com
    • Don't let negative things break you, instead let it be your strength, your reason for growth. Life is for living and I won't spend my life feeling cheated and downtrodden.
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  • #2
    These people still don't get it. They think culture is only Rasta and reggae. We have so much to offer but don't realise.
    • Don't let negative things break you, instead let it be your strength, your reason for growth. Life is for living and I won't spend my life feeling cheated and downtrodden.

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    • #3
      "Yellow bird up high in banana tree...."

      Comment

      • #4
        Originally posted by Assasin View Post
        These people still don't get it. They think culture is only Rasta and reggae. We have so much to offer but don't realise.
        So true Sass. Nothing about the rich heritage of the maroons. They would readily promote pirates of the Caribbean before they do Maroons of Jamaica. Short-sighted clowns. When are we gonna get out of this Bob Marley, BobMarley, Bob Marley, Bob Marley..........Bob Marley nonsense and start promoting a sustainable Jamaica in a more holistic manner. We can only beat the Bob Marley horse so much. There is more to our island, culture, and people than Rasta, Bob Marley, and reggae. Start with ska for God's sake.

        Comment

        • #5
          Maroons, small community play houses, Arawak(whatever they call it now), now obeah is legal(yes we can have a few obeah and poco revivals), yes we can sell the inner city lives, but what of the rural lifestyle that so many tourist crave for? Sports, history with a little flavor.

          If you notice the Spanish AI them now have a lot of spanish influenced entertainment, not Jamaican. Art and Craft fair etc, stufll like Dembigh show have potential. Also selling James bond and as you say the pirates stories etc.
          • Don't let negative things break you, instead let it be your strength, your reason for growth. Life is for living and I won't spend my life feeling cheated and downtrodden.

          Comment

          • #6
            Yep. All you hear is rasta this, reggae dat, Marley this, Marley dat while the rest of the country, culture and people gonwasting as selling points for the country. It must be that they are taking the lazy way out.

            I will never forget going into a tourist junk bead store in Mo Bay and one of the merchants from India/Bangladesh/pakistan/Sri Lanka in the store asked
            me, "who is this Bob Marley guy". He was the one trying to sell me the Marley junk tie-and-dye Bob Marley shirt. I nearly vomited in his store. But that is what we get from the type of tourist promotion that we do.

            Comment

            • #7
              Jamaicans are naturally aggressive. The type of tourism you and Assasin is describing requires customer contact. Locals interacting with the tourist is just not a good fit. It just sounds ok in discussions.

              I spent last week-end in the Tennessee mountains (on the recommendation of Assasin).

              Doc, those folks have their shitte together. The entire Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg community are submerged in the tourist BUSINESS. No one tries to hustle you and separate you from your money...
              The only time TRUTH will hurt you...is if you ignore it long enough

              HL

              Comment

              • #8
                Originally posted by HL View Post
                Jamaicans are naturally aggressive. The type of tourism you and Assasin is describing requires customer contact. Locals interacting with the tourist is just not a good fit. It just sounds ok in discussions.

                I spent last week-end in the Tennessee mountains (on the recommendation of Assasin).

                Doc, those folks have their shitte together. The entire Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg community are submerged in the tourist BUSINESS. No one tries to hustle you and separate you from your money...
                You are so right. Their aggressiveness is almost frightening, and primitive, for want of a worse word. Sad commentary for a country that needs all the income and goodwill one can offer.

                Comment

                • #9
                  You Got It!

                  Originally posted by HL View Post
                  Jamaicans are naturally aggressive. The type of tourism you and Assasin is describing requires customer contact. Locals interacting with the tourist is just not a good fit. It just sounds ok in discussions.

                  I spent last week-end in the Tennessee mountains (on the recommendation of Assasin).

                  Doc, those folks have their shitte together. The entire Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg community are submerged in the tourist BUSINESS. No one tries to hustle you and separate you from your money...
                  Excellent point, HL. What you have mentioned is a huge part of the problem, and one which, unfortunately, is often overlooked in discussions on the way forward.

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Yuh too lie!



                    BLACK LIVES MATTER

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                    • #11
                      The only way we can solve this is to bring tourism education in the schools. Instead of listening to what the guest wants, we pushing stuff down their throats that we think they "must" want.

                      HL mi glad you see how the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg people do their thing and the thing is a lot of business is done by small entrepreneurs and even some places the road is not what you see when you think of America but it work for them. There is just a lot of basic activities for a nice small group.
                      • Don't let negative things break you, instead let it be your strength, your reason for growth. Life is for living and I won't spend my life feeling cheated and downtrodden.

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        There is a difference between tourism business and hustling...

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