Community involvement critical in developing tourism
Published:Friday | December 22, 2023 | 12:07 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
I am writing with reference to news in the The Gleaner of last week regarding the request for proposals by the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) for consultants to undertake an assessment of their expansion plans to achieve more “sustainability” and comment as follows.
The entire approach is slanted towards the development of massive all-inclusive resort properties with thousands of rooms that will spin off “linkages” generating employment, as well as local agricultural and manufacturing production.
This is the myth we are being sold as we give massive tax incentives and take what we earn from tourism and pump 50 per cent into marketing and promotion of the industry to boost the earnings of the mainly multinational investors and the ego of the GOJ.
We constantly talk about “earnings of the industry” and “huge increases of visitors”, but the bottomline is: how is all of this positively impacting the communities surrounding the resorts and the wider Jamaican public?
DEGRADED STANDARD OF LIVING
Why, with all this positive growth and development of tourism, do we have neglected squatter settlements surrounding the resorts with no urban upgrading and clearly a strategy of perpetuating degraded standards of living for the majority of our people many of whom are the workers in the industry?
We need a new approach to investment and development, which is focused on answering the question of how we can maximise the positive impact on our communities and our people instead of bending over backwards as model neo-colonialists perpetuating modern slavery and giving incentives to foreign investors to continue our enslavement and lock the majority of us out of our beautiful beaches and other attractions.
Our new policies need to focus on incentivising Jamaican local and diaspora investors, incorporating the upgrading the physical and social conditions of our communities at the planning and implementation stage, pooling the earnings from tourism to develop our people and our communities in a more positive and sustainable way.
I could elaborate more and will not waste my time and effort to submit a proposal to undertake the required study as the last time I submitted, our proposal was rejected. All I ask this time is that my inputs as a “stakeholder” be sought and my ideas and inputs be incorporated and respected.
ROBERT STEPHENS
Pragma Consultants Ltd.