Stephen Vasciannie
The Planning Institute of Jamaica, in collaboration with the
United Nations Development Programme, published The Jamaica Human Development
Report 2005 earlier this year. The overall theme of the report concerns globalisation
and its effects on Jamaica, and one of the chapters in the Report is about 'Tourism
and Globalisation'. This chapter was written by Professor Ian Boxill and Dr.
Dillon Alleyne, both from the University of the West Indies.
Two weeks ago, the Planning Institute organised a forum on
the theme of 'Tourism and Globalisation', and invited Professor Boxill and Dr. Alleyne to participate in the presentation of their findings to a public audience in Ocho Rios. Others participating in the PIOJ's Dialogue for Development Forum 2006
included: the Custos of St. Ann, the Hon. Radcliffe Walters; Dr. Wesley Hughes, Director General of the PIOJ Mr. Juan Carlos Espinola, the UNDP Resident Representative in Jamaica, and
Dr. Peter-John Gordon, Director
of Economic Planning and Research at the PIOJ. Mrs.
Pauline Haughton of Econergy Engineering Services was the chairperson for the proceedings.
ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION
The presentations were rich and substantial, and sparked no small level of debate in the time allocated for discussions. Though it would be impossible even to list all the matters considered, certain issues struck me as especially significant on the day.
In the first place, there is the significance of tourism to the Jamaican economy:
For 2005, tourism contributed approximately 7.4 per cent of the foreign exchange earnings in the economy;
The total number of persons employed directly in the accommodation sector for tourism is over 31,000;
In the period 2002 to 2005, there was a four per cent increase in the number of
visitor arrivals;
There are now over 26,000
visitor rooms in the sector as a whole, and for Ocho Rios, tourism contributes approximately 28 per cent of the town's income.
These figures, and others, were provided by Dr. Gordon, and they tend to undermine the
arguments of those who maintain that tourism's contribution to Jamaica is overrated, an argument increasingly heard in
the context of the need for us
to ensure that we preserve Jamaica's natural environment.
ENVIRONMENT
And, on that point, there were, of course, exchanges between some environmentalists, on the one hand, and the Director General of the PIOJ, on the other. Perhaps, though, I am oversimplifying when I place the protagonists on different sides of the debate. To be sure, the environmentalists stressed the need for preservation - but they did not openly oppose hotel development. Likewise, although Dr. Hughes was clearly in favour of hotel projects, he stressed the need for development to be sustainable, noting, for instance, the need to ensure appropriate infrastructural arrangements for tourist towns.
Clearly, however, hard choices will need to be made: the development of the hotel sector generates jobs, foreign exchange and prospects for many Jamaicans in depressed communities; the environmentalists need to take this basic consideration more fully into mind when they argue about particular projects.
Professor Boxill informed the gathering of various structural changes that have taken place with respect to international tourism, and their possible effects on Jamaica. He noted, among other things, that the U.S.A. is still dominant in the Jamaican sector (with Europe and Canada contributing eight and 4.8 per cent, respectively, to visitor arrivals), and that the tourism industry is generally not as seasonal as it used to be. This pattern suggests strategies for improvement, some - but not all - of which have been incorporated in the Tourism Master Plan.
CRIME
Professor Boxill also considered the significance of the crime question. For the outsider it may well seem ironic that Jamaica combines both high levels of crime and a tourism occupancy rate of over 60 per cent. Certain considerations help to explain this situation. For one thing, crime is likely to have a greater impact on the European market, which for Jamaica remains relatively small. For another, Jamaica has shown increasing reliance on all-inclusives, a fact that has both positive and negative implications for the tourism sector. Thirdly, Professor Boxill noted evidence that the high crime rate may be countered to some extent by strong advertising.
Professor Boxill also explained that vertical integration is increasing within the international tourism sector. So, for example, tour operators, airlines, hotel chains and sight-seeing operations may all fall under one ownership structure.
This kind of arrangement, like that of all-inclusives, will have implications for the flow of funds from the host country; but, at the same time, it may not necessarily undermine the fact that tourism generates significant employment in the host country.
Stephen Vasciannie is a
professor at the UWI, and a Deputy Solicitor General in the Attorney-General's Chambers.
