The Editor, Sir:

I write in response to the article by Gareth Manning in your August 3 edition.

It is indeed shocking that the well-respected Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) has bestowed upon the garden parish of Jamaica, St Ann, the dubious distinction of being the poorest parish in Jamaica, with St James, home of our tourism Mecca, Montego Bay, a close second, a mind-boggling statistic, which warrants serious analysis by the nation if tourism is to remain as a pillar of our economy.

So, St Ann has 14 of the poorest communities in the country despite its capital, the resort town of Ocho Rios being home to one of the top natural attractions in the world, Dunn's River Falls.

National disgrace

Is this the impact of billions of dollars in visitor spending and further billions in investment by the Government on infrastructure and advertising? This is a national disgrace, will somebody now believe the poor craft vendors, who have been begging for a little piece of the pie for decades. As far as I am concerned, this PIOJ report is not about the benefits of all-inclusives or employment per se but rather a shameful scenario where our resort towns are allowed to be surrounded by poverty.

Something has to be funda-mentally wrong. Is there a plan to incorporate the poor communities of St Ann, St James and Trelawny into the tourism product, or are we to expect more of the same in the future? Would a commission of inquiry into this ultra-lucrative tourism industry provide the country with those long-unanswered questions?

I am, etc.,

ANTHONY FRECKLETON

Mandeville, Jamaica.

tonyfreckleton@cwjamaica.com