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We, too, are saddened that a major hotel brand like The Ritz-Carlton is leaving Jamaica.
But we are realists, which is why we do not share Mr Edmund Bartlett's hand-wringing and apparent sense of doom over the departure. Mr Bartlett, the opposition shadow tourism minister, should be wary of self-fulfilling prophecies.
First, while The Ritz-Carlton operated the 427-room hotel for 13 years, it has long been more than whispered that the company was on its way out. There have apparently been disagreements between The Ritz-Carlton and the property's owners, Rose Hall LP, adding to any other contributing factors for the departure.
In other words, this decision is not merely a sudden collapse of Jamaica's image and its inability to sustain a high-quality tourism brand.
In any event, it appears, based on reporting by this newspaper, that a very reputable company, Playa Hotels and Resorts, which operates all-inclusive properties in Mexico and the Dominican Republic, is to take over the management of the Rose Hall property. And, significantly, it is to be expanded and refurbished.
We welcome any such investment.
While it is our right, responsibility even, to promote Jamaica as the tourism destination we would like to be, it is ultimately the market that will decide. As Playa Hotels and Resorts and Rose Hall LP are, in this case, doing with their capital. They should be made to feel welcome - unless Mr Bartlett believes that his, or the hands of some bureaucrat dispensing taxpayers' money, are better at shaping such decisions.
Maybe this issue provides an opportunity for a serious discussion on the state and future of Jamaica's tourism, beyond the parroting of yesterday's arrival figures.
Mr Bartlett's notion of an elegant corridor of hotels of multiple stars and highly priced may be a worthy concept to be aspired to. But is there a sustainable, global, large-scale market for this style of tourism in today's economy? And is Jamaica the place for it on that scale.
For now, though, let Playa - and others - come.
Please go, Mayor Harris
Given the People's National Party's (PNP) majority in the St James Parish Council, we are unlikely to have the good fortune of the no-confidence motion, brought by the Opposition, succeeding against the council's chairman, Mr Glendon Harris.
Mr Harris, in our view, has been an embarrassment to the council and the mayorship of the parish's capital, Montego Bay.
It was he who took the oath of office to the backdrop of an approximation of the Jamaican flag. Its green, which happens to be the colour of the opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), was dropped. Mr Harris blamed the decorator.
It was Mayor Harris, at a rally against violence on women, who declared that he knew that "persons in high places" were fuelling crime in St James.
There is no evidence that he took this information to the police. He merely appealed to them to stop.
But more egregious was what can only be interpreted as a cynical attempt by Mr Harris to stall the renaming of the Cornwall Regional Hospital after the late, highly respected health minister, Dr Herbert Eldemire, who happened to be of the JLP. And there is more.
It would be worthy of Mayor Harris if he packs his bags and goes.
But we are realists, which is why we do not share Mr Edmund Bartlett's hand-wringing and apparent sense of doom over the departure. Mr Bartlett, the opposition shadow tourism minister, should be wary of self-fulfilling prophecies.
First, while The Ritz-Carlton operated the 427-room hotel for 13 years, it has long been more than whispered that the company was on its way out. There have apparently been disagreements between The Ritz-Carlton and the property's owners, Rose Hall LP, adding to any other contributing factors for the departure.
In other words, this decision is not merely a sudden collapse of Jamaica's image and its inability to sustain a high-quality tourism brand.
In any event, it appears, based on reporting by this newspaper, that a very reputable company, Playa Hotels and Resorts, which operates all-inclusive properties in Mexico and the Dominican Republic, is to take over the management of the Rose Hall property. And, significantly, it is to be expanded and refurbished.
We welcome any such investment.
While it is our right, responsibility even, to promote Jamaica as the tourism destination we would like to be, it is ultimately the market that will decide. As Playa Hotels and Resorts and Rose Hall LP are, in this case, doing with their capital. They should be made to feel welcome - unless Mr Bartlett believes that his, or the hands of some bureaucrat dispensing taxpayers' money, are better at shaping such decisions.
Maybe this issue provides an opportunity for a serious discussion on the state and future of Jamaica's tourism, beyond the parroting of yesterday's arrival figures.
Mr Bartlett's notion of an elegant corridor of hotels of multiple stars and highly priced may be a worthy concept to be aspired to. But is there a sustainable, global, large-scale market for this style of tourism in today's economy? And is Jamaica the place for it on that scale.
For now, though, let Playa - and others - come.
Please go, Mayor Harris
Given the People's National Party's (PNP) majority in the St James Parish Council, we are unlikely to have the good fortune of the no-confidence motion, brought by the Opposition, succeeding against the council's chairman, Mr Glendon Harris.
Mr Harris, in our view, has been an embarrassment to the council and the mayorship of the parish's capital, Montego Bay.
It was he who took the oath of office to the backdrop of an approximation of the Jamaican flag. Its green, which happens to be the colour of the opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), was dropped. Mr Harris blamed the decorator.
It was Mayor Harris, at a rally against violence on women, who declared that he knew that "persons in high places" were fuelling crime in St James.
There is no evidence that he took this information to the police. He merely appealed to them to stop.
But more egregious was what can only be interpreted as a cynical attempt by Mr Harris to stall the renaming of the Cornwall Regional Hospital after the late, highly respected health minister, Dr Herbert Eldemire, who happened to be of the JLP. And there is more.
It would be worthy of Mayor Harris if he packs his bags and goes.
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