Desmond HenryTREASURE BEACH:
KAREN FORD-WARNER is a former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism here, and is now deputy Secretary-General of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) in Barbados.
She spoke recently at a Green Hotels Conference of regional hoteliers, educators, planners and environmentalists in Montego Bay. She spoke on the prospect of regional hospitality holding its own in a changing competitive world.
Ford-Warner pictured the day when the regional tourism quality could be so portrayed worldwide, that it stands as an attractive across-the-board example of the best in environmental practices through deliberate planning and management. Right now, we are pretty far from the standard.
She also argued for the creation of "targeted incentives" to businesses investing in tourism development, especially those that carry out recognised energy conservation and waste management practices. She specifically called for incentives through lines of credit and other inducements targeted at those who carry out water and energy conservation, and good solid waste management. The CTO executive said that regional tourism should no longer be judged only in terms of arrivals, bed nights and direct expenditure. Well, I'll be darned.
I suspect that Ms. Ford-Warner was saying things now that she had long held on her chest but dared not express while she was in the Ministry here. You see, it would have been viewed as internal criticism and you know no one takes graciously to those kinds of truths these days especially in the Tourism Ministry. In the circumstances, therefore, what appears to have changed are not the objective facts only the location of the podium.
For a long time now, many in this country have been calling for this precise kind of focus that Ford-Warner spoke about. I have preached non-stop for a look at the concept of revenue-sharing in this highly productive industry. In other words, having set the parameters and the standards that are expected, you then provide a good measure of revenue give-back to those who conform and perform.
In areas like environmental practices for example, it might not always be feasible to refund cash, but other areas of incentive rewards might be just as appropriate. In tourism, appreciation of this concept is even more acute because of the ways in which the industry's successes are often visibly displayed. Tourism by its very nature, has the potential to attract far more idlers and pedlars than most other businesses, thus putting extraordinary social and civic pressures on its operating centres. The centres, in turn, need the extra revenues to do continuous upgrading.
The same is also true of other incentive gestures like government trade-off of land for capital investment, especially in the development of golf and sports tourism. Incentive awards are powerful mechanisms in the fields of investment developments. I remember when as Tourism Director, I helped spearhead the development of special legislation which gave tax credit to large companies whose employees took their yearly vacations in Jamaican hotels. The result was not only good exposure for the industry, but large consequential investment by Jamaicans in the villas and apartments sector of the industry. Today's growth in Community Tourism is a direct result of that incentive pattern started years ago. In many other areas of training, intelligence sharing, joint marketing, regional promotions and activities development, regional tourism centres have remained far too insular for the good of everyone. The Caribbean as a brand product in the world's hospitality market-place is long overdue, as a location synonymous with variety, best practices and value-for-money. Geographically it is far easier to do it together than attempting it alone.
And so Ms. Ford-Warner's call for widespread regional co-operation in tourism is not only appropriate, it is absolutely vital. There are immense flow-through benefits to be gained in investment, technical development, training, marketing, consumption and income-sharing across the entire region. But it will not happen without dramatic changes in our mindsets.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
The world is ruled by force, not by opinion. But opinion does control force.
Desmond Henry is a marketing strategist based in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth.
