Simpson Miller By Janet Silvera,
Freelance Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
TOURISM MINISTER Portia Simpson Miller is excited by Mexico's offer to allow Jamaica to study its development plans.
"They are willing to lend us their expertise by way of technical co-operation. We are looking at their Fonatur, an agency like our Urban Development Corporation (UDC) and our prime aim here was to look at their convention facility as we look towards building one," she told The Gleaner.
Mexico's Director-General with responsibility for Inter-national Relations, in the Ministry of Tourism, Mr. Pedro Hoth made the offer recently at the Caribbean Hotel Association Marketplace conference in Cancun.
Mrs. Simpson Miller said Mexico called for closer collaboration with Jamaica after meeting with Joaquin Hendricks Diaz, the Governor of the state of Quintana Roo, the Secretary of Tourism, Mr. Guillermo Martinez-Flores and Mr. Hoth on Monday.
Mrs. Simpson Miller was impressed with the secure environment Cancun offers to its visitors and expressed an interest in learning how it could be applied to Jamaica's tourism and industry workers.
"Houses for workers, health care and schools are being created to support the hotels being built and the unique thing about Cancun is the fact that even construction workers are then employed as waiters, receptionists, or in areas they are best suited after construction ends," she said.
Fonatur works by identifying an area of land for development, puts in the necessary infrastructure, the land is then handed over to a developer, who within eight months of buying the land must complete the slated project. In the interim communities are being built on the outskirts of the hotel areas to facilitate hotel workers.
As recent as the late 1960s Cancun was a fishing village with a handful of inhabitants and the island was a 17km-long sandbar, covered with coconuts groves. A group of bankers and visionaries saw the area's potential and convinced the Mexican government to invest. Today Cancun is Jamaica's greatest competitor and Mexico's most important resort.
Boasting 25,375 hotel rooms and one of the largest conference centres, which none of the Caribbean islands have, Cancun was again confirmed to host marketplace in January 13-15, 2002. In the past, Jamaica, Bahamas and Puerto Rico have all hosted the conference. However it has grown too big for their conference facilities.
The Minister who will be celebrating her first anniversary in office next month, spoke on the challenges the country faces, but she said she has major plans to reposition the industry. "No stones will left unturned to take Jamaica back to being the premier destination, we are not where we want to be now, but we will get there," she said.
The trip to Cancun was an eye opener for the Minister who got an opportunity to see how the Mexican government prioritises the industry. The support given to their tourism has tremendously boosted their arrival figures of three million visitors per year to the city of Cancun alone. Jamaica on the other hand had 2.2 million visitors last year.
