Tourism, The Driver of Change in the Jamaican Economy? Edited by Kenneth O. Hall and Rheima Holding.

Title: Tourism: The Driver of Change in the Jamaican Economy?

Edited by: Kenneth Hall and Rheima Holding

Publisher: Ian Randle Publishers (2006)

Reviewer: Raymond Forrest

With Tourism expected to be the major economic provider for jobs (direct and indirect), revenue, sectional linkages, and other spin-offs in the Caribbean economy as we go deeper into the 21st century, this book is indeed timely as it carries a wide range of authors with various perspectives on this interesting subject.

The question sign in the title is indeed deliberate, as there are those who question the impact that tourism can make to an economy and whether it can provide the engine to drive small Caribbean states forward, as they cope with the restructured relationships of the demise of preferential trade arrangements and greater worldwide competition in certain agricultural goods, where they once dominated, plus limited mobility of freedom of travel to the metropolis for much of the population that was once the pattern in a different time period.

The book is actually a compilation of various papers that came out of a Mona Academic Conference (August 26-28, 2006) that tried to analyse the contribution of former Prime Minister of Jamaica, Edward Seaga (and current Distinguished Research Fellow, at the University of the West Indies), other political figures, tourism experts and practitioners. All authors bring their own interesting insight into what is the most visible service industry in the region.

It may be 419 pages in length, but it makes for easy reading and has frequent tables and timely references to buttress key points as you proceed.

Split into 8 parts, comprising 19 papers and an afterword from Sir Alister McIntyre, as well as a paper by itself from Dr. Carolyn Cooper, treating reggae as a renewable resource, but placed in the appendix (Appendix 1), you will be able to understand the role that tourism has played and can play in the Caribbean.

Questions

Questions surrounding the desirability of the 'all inclusive' concept or the viability of the small hotel owner, or how important is branding in tourism (or even whether Jamaica has too many different appeals to different niche markets for tourists) are all looked at.

The possibility of promoting new and sustained types of tourism (health, heritage, eco-tourism) are all explored.

What is the extent of linkages and what is limiting such linkages in entertainment agriculture, craft and other services are also explored. If you are interested in trying to measure the value of tourism, then this book also gives you some good answers, despite the difficulty of getting concrete figures on net retention (a quite difficult measure), given the level of leakages within the industry.

Supporting services

What supporting services we need to offer to further develop the hospitality industry, what are the challenges, what are the opportunities, and what strategies we need to pursue, then this is the book to read.

One excellent paper I found was that on 'Creative Branding and Transportation' by Jens Holder, looking at the viability of Caribbean Airlines.

As a former Secretary-General of the Caribbean Tourism and Development Centre, then the Caribbean Tourism Organization, as well as former Director General, and from his perspective as chairman of the Board of LIAT, Holder writes a succinct analysis on the Caribbean airline industry and whether any mergers between regional airlines could work.

His vivid account of the global realities of the current airline industry and debunking of myths, the success or failure of both private and public ownership of airlines (quoting specific airlines as examples) and brief case studies on Air Jamaica, BWIA and LIAT are very good.

I leave you to come to your own conclusion after reading Holder's excellent critique.

Articles concerning the unsavoury aspects of the industry are not avoided as the authors also look at HIV-AIDS and transferable diseases and attitudes within the industry to sex tourism (Dr. Boxhill et al) and crime and violence in the sector (Dr. Anthony Harriott).

C. Jayawardena also poses some excellent questions in his paper (p.292), as to What type of tourists (do we want)? How many tourists do we want? What type of tourism do we want to develop?

What (do) we expect to come from tourism?

As a sage once said, you cannot be everything to everyone, so we may very well have to focus on what we really want. Not every type of tourist is wanted or welcomed and just like how you have unsuitable segments of local communities and even some unsuitable tourism businesses, so too should we screen out some types of tourists.

I found this book highly informative and educational. It should be a must have for every industry practitioner. They will not be disappointed.