By: Sharon Parris-Chambers
Editor-in-Chief
Positive Tourism News
MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica – Wayne Cummings stood elegant and poised while Executive Director, Camille Needham introduced him before his presentation to members at the 47th annual General Meeting of the Jamaica Hotel & Tourist Association (JHTA) on Saturday, June 6, 2008 at Half Moon Resort & Spa, Rose Hall, St. James.
He recapped the 2007-2008 year noting 1.3 percent growth in stopover arrivals to 1,700,785, surpassing the record breaking 2006 year. He recounted the organizations’ role as an advocate on behalf of members on several critical issues, one of which resulted in the Prime Minister taking JHTA’s message of unequivocal rejection of CARICOM Special Visa to member states; welcomed casino gaming as a boost & increase to the national economy and praised JAPEX 2008 as one of the most successful staging in recent years. These were some of the notable achievements highlighted in the President’s report.
The JHTA President said that while he believes the Minister of Tourism is passionate about taming the monster of crime, “crime is out of hand.” He further stated, “It’s not good enough to tell tourists that we don’t kill them, we only kill each other over rice and peas, because we don’t know how to reason out our differences”. He urged Jamaicans to take back Jamaica for their own good. Mr. Cummings’ resoluteness about the subject left a visceral impact on those present; a feeling that one has not heard the last from him on this subject.
Minister Edmund Bartlett gave the keynote presentation while highlighting the many challenges facing the global tourism industry, he said “today’s meeting presents an opportunity for us to examine together these challenges and to come up with solutions to deal with them.”
Included in the challenges he noted were economic instability in the U.S. which dominated the headlines: the continuing slide of the dollar, which interestingly enough, has skewed European travel toward the United States and away from the Caribbean; soaring fuel prices which are impacting every industry, resulting in an increase in the cost of living; turmoil in the aviation industry, with an unprecedented number of airlines forced to consolidate or fold.
The tourism minister said “given the various challenges, it’s clear it can’t be business as usual and our survival will depend on how we work together to meet the global demands of the industry and tackle the issue of crime.”
Noting that travelers were decreasing their spend on travel, according to Forrester Research, the Minister turned his focus on three important market sectors: Babyboomers (born 1946-1964) representing a multi-generational group favoring all-inclusive resorts with luxury accommodations. It is important to note that this is the group that drives health, spa & wellness tourism, which is a trillion dollar industry. Generation X (born 1965 to 1979) are spur of the moment travellers and respond well to luxury appeal; and the Millennial’s (born 1980 to 2000) are more technologically-driven in their decision making, relying on communication tools such as My Space and Facebook.
The Minister alluded to the ‘new tourism,’ of which he spoke in the 2008/2009 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives recently. In this paradigm, Jamaica would achieve a competitive edge in the global marketplace by changing its focus to a marketing mix to include niche and target marketing, product development, investment and the full engagement of private – public sector –partners.
While making his contribution to the Sectoral Debate, Minister Edmund Bartlett said the ministry would be aiming for double-digit growth each year in both arrivals and expenditure up to 2012 [Jamaica would have reached its capacity of 30,000 room stock by 2010 and brought on stream significant mega attractions to command such growth]. The tourism ministry is working on an initiative to increase tourist arrivals to five million people in the next four years. This is forecasted to pull in earnings of $5 billion.
In conclusion the tourism minister spoke of sharpening our image, a reference to the ‘Spruce up Jamaica’ Campaign; he reiterated its message of involving every Jamaican resident; reinforcing the importance of tourism to every Jamaican; building pride in country and community, as well as personal pride; improving the physical environment and making Jamaica a more desirable place to live, to visit, and to conduct business.
He said “to ensure the success of the ‘new tourism,’ it is imperative that we place our people at the centre. The key to achieving this is partnership between the government and the private sector, working together and in tandem with the respective communities.”
The JHTA AGM election of officers followed the spirited Allied Members Luncheon and Benefit Auction which was hosted by Brian Roper of Sandals Resort International.
Wayne Cummings was unanimously re-elected as JHTA President for a second term. His administration, Officers from the Council were returned unchallenged: 1st VP Evelyn Smith; 2nd VP Nicola Madden-Gregg; 3rd VP Judy Schoenbein and 4th VP Vana Taylor.
Other awardees included: Daniel Grizzle, owner of Charela Inn, who received the first Lifetime Achievement Award along with Heinz Simonitch, former Managing Director, Half Moon Resort & Spa. Evelyn Smith, General Manager, Point Village Hotel received the coveted JHTA Hotelier of the Year Award. Ethilda Samson, Point Village received the JHTA Hotel Supervisor of the Year Award. Carolyn Wright, General Manager, Rondel Village Hotel, was the recipient of the JHTA Small Hotel of the Year Award (An EXIM Bank Award) and Kool Runnings Water Park was the Winner of the Allied Attractions Award.
Carolyn Wright told Positive Tourism News “I am the recipient of the Small Hotel of the Year award, first time ever given, and I am proud as ever. Negril won 5 of the 10 awards.”
At Press time, the Negril Chamber of Commerce reported that a reception will be held in honour of the 5 awardees to mark this most significant achievement on June 27, 2008 at Choices Beach House in Negril. Grace Lee, President of the Negril Chamber of Commerce praised the winners for their great achievement.
