By Bevan Springer
NEW YORK – A press conference at the recent Caribbean Marketplace travel event in St. Lucia inspired me to reflect on the contributions of two journalists who have made a positive contribution to Caribbean tourism through their work.
Reacting to a British journalist who implored his fellow media colleagues during the question and answer segment of the press conference to ask, not what the Caribbean can do for journalists, but what they can do for the Caribbean, inspired me to reflect on the work, firstly of Jamaican scribe and entrepreneur Janet Silvera who coordinates Hospitality Jamaica – a Gleaner publication.
Janet Silvera
Janet, a senior writer with a youthful outlook and refreshing disposition, has kept tourism, the region’s bread winner, on the news and business pages of one of Jamaica’s premier publications, and in so doing has helped connect the Jamaican people to an industry that many across the region consider as patronizing and subservient.
Her stories are well researched and her topics captivating as she thoughtfully breaks the news and drives newspaper sales with her exclusive stories which cover the length and breadth of the local tourism landscape as well as the regional tourism environment.
In today’s era of internet-based communications, Janet Silvera as well a number of top regional writers and wire reporters are important sources of information for the prized trade and consumer writers in North America and Europe, the likes of whom are courted by our tourism officials in both the public and private sector.
However it is not always appreciated how much Caribbean-based reporters drive the news in the marketplace through their resort and destination updates, and how those of us communicators in the metropolis rely on them to be kept abreast of the latest developments back at home.
In my backyard in the tri-state area, there is another scribe who deserves regional recognition for an outstanding contribution to tourism.
The New Jersey-based Gay Myers of Travel Weekly thinks and breathes journalism with her focus mainly on the Caribbean. On a daily basis she keeps her subscribers – travel professionals the world over who sell the region even during hard times – updated on all Caribbean travel and tourism developments, whether about airlines, resorts, destinations or the region’s attempts to mount a regional marketing campaign.
Gay Myers
A very modest soul, Gay is a walking tourism encyclopedia and the region should not just clamor to have her included on press trips, but seek more of her counsel given the valuable knowledge she has accumulated about this industry over the years.
It is time for all Caribbean decision makers to fully understand the positive impact these members of the Fourth Estate are having on the psyche of the public and the development of our local economies, and ensure that they are treated with respect and admiration.
To Janet and Gay – congratulations. You are inspiring heroines of Caribbean tourism who ask not what the Caribbean can do for you. Stay the course my friends.
Bevan Springer
(Bevan Springer, a columnist with New York’s Amsterdam News, is the Director of the Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx) and President of Marketplace Excellence, a public relations, marketing and media company.)
