Jamaica needs page out of Singapore's tourism book

Ken Jones, Contributor

I do marvel at the way our tourism leaders are proudly celebrating the arrival of two million stopover visitors to the island last year. They rejoice that it is the first time in history and that the achievement indicates how well we are moving towards the goal of a brilliantly successful industry. There may be joy in the administrative offices, but not much of a giggle among hotel workers, craft vendors, and transport operators.

There are those who object when tiny Singapore is mentioned in comparison with Jamaica's overall growth and development. In such cases, it is a bitter pill to swallow, considering that if all Jamaica's tourism centres were placed side by side, the space covered could be larger than Singapore itself. All the same, it is a good place to use for comparison when talking tourism.

Singapore, the size of one of our smaller parishes, has but a fraction of Jamaica's natural resources. Its organised tourism began with the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board in 1964 and in the first year of operation there were 99,000 tourist arrivals. Ten years later, the figure was well past a million; and in 1986 when Jamaica was celebrating a million stopover visitors, Singapore's count was more than three million.

TOURISTS IN GREAT NUMBERS

Jamaica's tourism dates back to the late 19th century when we had the Myrtle Bank and Constant Spring hotels in Kingston. Others were located in Spanish Town, Moneague, Mandeville, and Port Antonio. In those days, when Jamaica was entertaining royalty and celebrities in international industry, commerce and entertainment, Singapore was little else than an important trading post for the British East India Company. Yet still in 2013, when we were celebrating two million visitors, Singapore, in 2011, had counted more than 13 million - about three times the country's total population; and already they had laid plans for an anticipated 17 million visitors for 2015, with income projected at S$30 billion.

Singapore's world-famous airline and its tourism successes were not attained by sudden flight; nor was it because of grand natural resources. Lee Kwan Yew tells of how the idea of tourism was put to him by a soft drink manufacturer who showed how the industry was "labour intensive, needing cooks, maids, waiters, laundrymen, dry cleaners, tour guides, drivers, and makers of souvenir handicraft. Best of all, it required little capital". Lee was able to write later that "Singapore had little culture or history… but it had three million tourists per year (in the 1980s) … selling scenery, fresh air, fresh food, laundry services, curios, and souvenirs to tourists."

While little Singapore was attracting three million visitors, China with its huge population was welcoming a mere million. It was Lee Kwan Yew who offered lessons to China and today, China, with more than 60 million visitors annually, is one of the most visited countries in the world. But never mind great China; think of little Singapore. And don't talk about the power wielded by the Singapore government. The Jamaican Government has power as much - check out the way it is working to denationalise the Goat Islands.

By the way, as so many of us like to search for Jamaican heroes in sport, entertainment or whatever else may boost our image, we might like to know that the founder of Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles, was born on a ship while it was located off the coast of Port Morant, St Thomas. That makes him a Jamaican, doesn't it!

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