Good News for Jamaican Tourism

[ECO]

Sounds like good news but why are people down there complaining that this year is so much slower than last year? I wonder if more people are staying in the giant AI's and not venturing into the towns?

noting that the JTB is spending roughly US$10 million on marketing the island during the season.

I can't recall every seeing or hearing a single JTB ad over here in the states. Has anyone else seen or heard them?

[Nanoose]

1.4 billion dollars is a nice yearly income 2 billion is even better.
So I can’t see why Jamaican kids are going to school hungry.
If you were to divide that money up every Jamaican would get roughly 16 thousand dollars a year. Who gets the lion share of the torsion dollar – Government, big resorts or what? Cheers!

[ECO]

Most of the big resorts are known to filter a good share of the money away from Jamaica. They don't pay good wages ($200USD a month for 240 working hours), they have most of their food shipped in, they spend a mint on marketing with very little of it going to attract Jamaicans.................. God knows who keeps and eye on the smaller places that deal in mostly cash transactions at least those people will spend the money in their local area.

On the bright side the whole industry provides a bunch of jobs, the JA government collects trucks full of taxes from the business' and tourist and as tourists it's still a cheap place to vacation.

[Nanoose]

I was figuring that the money made in Jamaica wasn’t staying in Jamaica – seems even worse that the resorts ship in food. When you say that they spend a mint on marketing but the ads aren’t aimed at Jamaicans are you talking about Jamaicans that live in other Countries?
Maybe it’s God himself that keeps an eye on the smaller places and he helps keep the transactions cash so that it can be put back into the local economy. If so do you think he should also be keeping an eye on the truck loads of tax money - like is that money put back into the Country or is it also filtered out? Cheers!

[ECO]

Whats even worse than them shipping in food is the amount of food that goes to waste from farmers in Jamaica. One of the Rasta farmers that I know up in the hills estimates that 80% of the stuff he brings to Ochi ends up not getting sold (exported/local sales= no clue). The reason this was brought up this time was because I was asking him about his tomato harvest that I saw in the spring and he said that he was not able to sell it and it went to waste. In a way it's just like the US where food will go to waste instead of getting it to hungry people in need.

Aimed at Jamaicans= very little money goes toward marketing to the Jamaican population in Jamaica. I'm taking a guess that some pencil pusher (desk jockey) looks at their ROI (return on investment) for every marketing dollar spent and focuses the money on the UK, CA and then the US and if any is left over maybe Jamaica and the other islands. With some of the AI's running $4000+ a week for a family of 4 I guess they need to focus on whoever has money in this poor economy. Speaking of which I hear that a bunch of Chinese people vacation in Jamaica but I have never seen a bunch of them......maybe they like Kingston or the south coast?

I think the money at the smaller places stays local. They hire local help, they buy local food, they use local trades people to build their shops & cottages and many of them don't have a budget to use foreign marketing. The place that I stay at over in Priory (outside of Ochi) doesn't have a website, can't be found on the internet and oddly enough I don't think they even have a business name.

[Nanoose]

Well it’s a shame local farmers can’t sell their crops (farming is hard work)
Be even a bigger shame if the crops are just thrown away instead of giving it to
the children in the schools that can’t concentrate because their hunger.
Maybe the local schools, farmers and business should get together and put those big resorts out of business.
I was thinking that maybe a local school or two could teach Web building and then the kids could go to the local business and offer to build and maintain promotional sites for them. (on a barter or money payment)
( I guess there would be a server costs. And Internet cost - unless they learn how to piggy back off a wireless signal (but that’s bad)) Cheers!