By Garwin Davis, Assistant News EditorEDWARD SEAGA, leader of the JLP, on Saturday chastised the Government for what, he said, was its failure to respond quickly to "an impending crisis facing the tourism sector".
Mr. Seaga, who was guest speaker at a fund-raising dinner in Ocho Rios for Shahine Robinson, Member of Parliament for St. Ann North East, said the US$2.5 million to be given to the Ministry of Tourism by the Finance Ministry on May 20, was not only indicative of a Government which was out of sync with reality, but clearly showed scant regard for the importance of tourism to the country.
He said that not only would the money not be enough to restart the country's advertising campaign overseas, but it all but guaranteed a major fallout in the tourism industry. He is predicting that before long the hotel sector would again be hit with lay-offs and also cut-throat pricing among the properties.
"This is not a Government that understands tourism," Mr. Seaga said. "It should not be a case where the administration is scrounging everywhere to find money to promote the country abroad.
The US$2.5 million which will come from the Finance Ministry, will not be enough to clear the arrears with the international ad agency, which means we will still not have a presence in the overseas markets. Is this the way to treat the country's leading industry? When you look at what has been happening with agriculture, mining and the manufacturing sector, one can only conclude that the engine of growth for this country is tourism."
The Jamaica Tourist Board admitted last week that it owed a New York ad agency US$5 million, which had resulted in no television ads being aired for Jamaica in both Europe and the United States. The Ministry of Finance has agreed to make half of the amount available to the JTB on May 20. But Mr. Seaga and other industry players claim it is just a drop in the bucket.
Also, he took to task, Portia Simpson Miller, the Tourism Minister, saying that comments attributed to her over the weekend were both disturbing and ill-advised. "I find the reaction of the Tourism Minister to the problems facing the sector very strange," Mr. Seaga said. She needs to explain her comments regarding special interests. Tourism is for everybody in the country... I really don't understand what she was trying to say."
Mrs. Simpson Miller on Thursday was quoted in Montego Bay as saying that "special interest persons" within the sector were only looking to their benefit."
Mr. Seaga said it was either that the Minister was not being briefed properly, or she "doesn't understand the nature of the industry. The Minister should be addressing the real problems facing the sector and explain why the country is not being promoted overseas," he said. "There is this belief by the Government that tourism is the rich man's business and money should not have to be made available to assist the wealthy."
Efforts to contact Mrs. Simpson Miller yesterday were unsuccessful. Josef Forstmayr, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association, said he could understand Mrs Simpson Miller's frustration, adding that he wasn't perturbed by her comments. "The Tourism Minister is someone who speaks with a lot of passion," he said. "I am sure she did not mean to offend anybody." He reiterated his call for the country to get back to advertising overseas as quickly as possible, noting that time was running out. "April, May and June, the experts will tell you, are the months to get the best return on your advertising dollar," he said. "If it goes beyond that we are in trouble. Nobody watches TV in the summer... that is why I am so concerned."
