Prospects of tourism product
published: Tuesday | March 11, 2003
THE EDITOR, Sir:
RECENTLY 'BUTCH' Stewart reintroduced to the table of ideas the need to diversify the offerings to tourists to include casino gambling. I am seriously sceptical of the net gains to the average Jamaican of tourism. In the net, remittances is the leading foreign exchange earner, and I'd sooner argue that we train people to enter foreign markets in the areas of nursing, teaching and other such areas.
But if we ask why Jamaica has maintained a distinctive savour within the Caribbean? It has always been the people. It is the Jamaican people who sell Jamaica, as much as it is the Jamaican people who hinder the sale of the island. Why we have to turn to alternatives such as casinos is probably a recognition that the Jamaican people themselves are getting shafted and other pull factors must be put in place to compensate.
When Jamaicans feel like first class citizens in their own country, then my bet (if you will) is that it shall outshine any other place as a tourism mecca.
