Dawn RitchSIR RICHARD Branson's airline has at last, in 2006, come to Jamaica.
Virgin Atlantic Airways began service to the Caribbean in 1988 with flights to Barbados, St. Lucia and Antigua. In 2003, the airline launched weekly services to Grenada and Tobago. In 2004, service was introduced to Cuba and the Bahamas.
This British airline flies out of Gatwick in the U.K., not Heathrow. After the tremendous sense of style Sir Richard displayed in Montego Bay, I won't be flying British Airways again. I don't care how many gates they have at Heathrow.
Sir Richard is reported in The Observer as having "kissed the runway's asphalt." He's overjoyed to be here, at last.
His elderly parents accompanied him on the flight, and told local reporters that they were planning to stay for a week. Indeed, his mother said she'd be coming back again soon. And that's before she'd even slept on it.
NOT SURPRISED
These are wonderful people who can't run fast, or duck that quickly either. So I wasn't surprised to read that it was both their first trips to Jamaica. After all, neither is a spring chicken, and Jamaica can be taxing.
On the tarmac, Sir Richard danced with a female member of the Hatfield Folk and Cultural Group like Richard the Lion-heart. Broad grins were on the faces of all the musicians. She looked quite happy herself, but none so happy as the chief executive officer of Virgin Atlantic Airways. It's a brilliant photograph, and should be released internationally, wherever people are interested in the carryings on of that adventurer and billionaire.
The shot of him standing on the wing of the plane with two Jamaican models in chaste b-riders either side, and flanked by uniformed stewardesses holding aloft the Jamaican and British flag was absolutely priceless. It took creativity, planning and rehearsal to achieve that effortless look of spontaneity.
The primacy of the international press on the photo shoot, about which there have been complaints from local electronic media, was important to the marketing and promotion of Virgin Atlantic's flights to Jamaica. Nobody creates a living heraldic symbol on the wing tip of an aircraft without having commercial needs in mind, as well as compliments in this case, the international distribution of a striking visual in all the travel markets served by the airline.
Bereft of a sense of humour, however, one local talk show host hysterically called him 'Mr. Idiot' on the airwaves. And all this because Sir Richard was standing on the wing in a dreadlock wig, holding up the locks with one hand and a fake marijuana cigarette in the other. Angrily, the talk show asked "Is that what we represent to you Mr. Branson?"
Well, actually, yes. That's how everybody sees us ... as home to the world's best marijuana, Rastafarians, and sexy girls. I don't have any complaints about Jamaica having distinctive characteristics that can be easily and recognisably satirised to create the ultimate feel-good photograph. That man deserves a rum.
CAPTURE THE MOMENT
He wanted international media to capture the moment and ensure world-wide coverage. They got the first bite of the cherry. The authorities at the Donald Sangster International Airport held back the local press, so that the others could go first and do their job quickly. And of course without being jostled by local media probably rushing to positions already reserved by Virgin's public relations for the overseas press.
The CEO of our latest airline wanted world-wide reporting on its maiden flight to Jamaica. Any half-wit Jamaican would want the same thing. An iconic picture has been created, and I for one, hope it goes far and wide.
I know it hurts not to be the most important thing in life, but Jamaican media must try to get over it sometimes. As public relations, those photographs correctly positioned abroad are worth an entire year's hard currency advertising budget from the Jamaica Tourist Board. And best of all, it's at his expense, not ours. What's there to complain about?
Now, if overseas media are at all interested in the fact that Sir Richard's aged parents were also on the tarmac enjoying mento music, that would be great. In one fell swoop, Jamaica as a tourism destination would be re-positioned as a safe place for the elderly to visit. It wouldn't be true, but it would suggest that nevertheless.
Old people can't run from gunmen. They also have a very low level of tolerance for shouting and loud music. The lack thereof makes Barbados, St. Lucia and Antigua upscale, and draws tourists who spend money ashore.
Jamaican tourism on the other hand, is largely for road chickens who know when to fly out of the way of pedestrians and taxicabs. We are the country where back-packers keep their heads straight and know not to answer anybody who speaks to them on the roads. They trundle along in threes and fours. Naturally, none of them is hard of hearing or has arthritis, and all of them can run.
POINTLESS
It would be pointless to hope for tourism from the elderly or their children and grandchildren unless the Government does something about the plague of noise nuisance across the length and breadth of the island. Even our hotels are noisy with loud music, trolleys with worn wheels, and staff in the bars and restaurants shouting to each other across the room in the mistaken belief that they're amusing the guests. Frequently, the hotel staff go and compound it all by being familiar with the tourists, when it's only a hard-core minority who want to know anything about the big bamboo.
It is impossible to have truly viable tourism as long as we think nothing of depriving guests of a good night's sleep through no fault of their own. Nobody finds that either charming or colourful. The hard-sell approach offends more often than it entices.
Residential areas throughout Jamaica, as well as hotels, should be the quiet zones they're supposed to be. That means no motor cycles without mufflers, no trucks with air horns, nor stacks of speakers within ear shot. A little peace and quiet is sure to reduce the murder rate locally and give everything a shot in the arm, including tourism.
Sir Richard Branson is a brave man, and I wish him all the best.
