After Tivoli- part 1

For the better part of a week picture of the excursion into Tivoli have been plastered all over the newspapers, televisions and the internet.  The concern of the government is to determine what effect this will have on the country’s tourism product.  With this is mind the Minister of tourism, the honourable Edmund Bartlett has embarked on a worldwide tour to repair Jamaica’s image.  To help accomplish this purpose, he proposes to spend an additional eleven million US dollars on advertising.

Although there is no doubt there has been some adverse reaction to the happenings, many persons are questioning the size of the amount to be spent.  It is good to be proactive and not to wait until there is a problem to react, however it is equally important that one does not give a knee jerk response to the crisis.  To be fair the minister will probably be criticised no matter what he does.  Informal discussions with the tourism sector have revealed that the level of cancellations is not significant.  As with all such situations the number of cancellations will vary from place to place, with Kingston being the recipient of the most cancellations. 

However Kingston plays a relatively small part in the overall tourism product. What is more difficult to determine is the number of persons who would have come to Jamaica but have now changed their minds.

One needs enough time to adequately assess the situation but not so much that it becomes too late to act.  It would seem that the government should support their decision by giving information about the number of cancellations received.  We are after all in the middle of a severe financial constraint and need to use our resources carefully.  The other problem with the additional advertising is that it will become impossible to determine how many of the future bookings were solely as a result of it.  Many tourists already know about the bad crime situation in the country especially in Kingston and Spanish town and may not have been turned off by what has happened.

I do believe that it is important to demonstrate good leadership but it is important that we don’t bandage the whole arm when a simple band aid would suffice.