Tourism benefiting too few locals
Published:Monday | June 18, 2018 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Are we really benefiting from tourism? According to Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett, 30 per cent of every dollar stays in Jamaica. My question is, why has 70 per cent of every dollar gone overseas?
I reside in the resort town of Ocho Rios, and from what I've seen and heard, the locals ain't benefiting from tourism .Our craft vendors here have to be competing with the wealthy Indian gift shops.
These all-inclusive hotels and resorts are making all the money. So even if a tourist decides to spend with a local, it ain't going to be much. Local taxi operators who are licensed with the Tourism Product Development Company and JUTA are suffering because of these all-inclusive packages.
Our farmers are bleeding because these hotels rather to purchase produce overseas. Many of these hotels claim that we don't have enough produce for them, which couldn't be further from the truth in some cases.
We have many entertainers in the local industry, yet still some hotels sideline them for overseas talents.
Many of these overseas owners of hotels and resorts send money to their homelands. They don't even pay their local employees well. The placement of locals as managers is just a faÁade!
Yes, we can boast about those record numbers of tourists coming to Jamaica, but we, the locals, ain't benefiting from them.
TEDDYLEE GRAY
Ocho Rios, St Ann