By Garwin Davis, Assistant News Editor.JPG)
Stewart
IN A blistering attack on both the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) and the Ministry of Tourism, chairman of the Sandals group of hotels, Gordon 'Butch' Stewart, yesterday said that the island's tourism industry was being run by people who "are either inept or have no sense of what their duties are."
According to Mr. Stewart, in a statement commenting on the state of the tourism industry, the JTB not only has no strategic plan "for any of our primary markets," but "it lacks the administrative competence to realise that it is failing in its duty to the industry."
He said that for more than three years he, along with others in the industry, have been warning the JTB that it was suicidal for it to allocate more than 25 per cent of its budget for administrative purposes.
"Our pleas have fallen on deaf ears," said the Sandals boss. "The result is that just when the industry was seeing signs of recovery, it has been plunged into another crisis, courtesy of the JTB. Those of us who have invested heavily in tourism have done so in good faith.
"The continued attempts to promote disunity among industry players is counter-productive. If large hotels do badly, then the death of the smaller hotels is certain. It is time for teamwork, but this can only be possible when the JTB begins to show respect for the real investors in tourism."
He said that the suspension of Jamaica's advertising programme overseas, because of the JTB's failure to pay their advertising agency was nothing short of a "national disgrace."
"Once again this demonstrates the rank incompetence and chaos within the management of the JTB," Mr. Stewart said.
The JTB last week revealed that it was US$5million in arrears to a New York-based ad agency resulting in the suspension of television ads for Jamaica in the critical markets of Europe and the United States.
And, calling the current JTB the "weakest board that has presided over Jamaica's most vital industry in decades," Mr. Stewart said that Jamaica's position in the marketplace is being compromised and eroded with every passing day. He added that "the fact that the present board has allowed the situation to go unchecked, suggests that they are either inept or have no sense of what their duties are."
Mr. Stewart said the unprecedented 22.6 per cent decline in visitor arrivals at the Sangster International Airport last month, was not only "cause for major concern" but that the dismal projections for the coming months mean that "the tourist industry is on the eve of another major crisis."
And, in probably his harshest criticism yet of the Tourism Ministry, Mr. Stewart notes that in light of the decline in arrivals, when combined with "the unprecedented discounting now taking place in the industry because of Jamaica's weak destination image," the least one would expect is that the tourism ministry and the JTB would have "summoned senior industry stakeholders including those at the national airline which carries 50 per cent of the visitors to the island, to work out a strategy to avoid the impending disaster."
"Instead, both the Ministry of Tourism and the Jamaica Tourist Board continue to flounder and display no awareness of the crisis at our doorsteps," he said.
Mr. Stewart referred to what he called "reckless spending" adding, "I cannot, neither will I encourage other senior players in the industry to support any further allocations to the JTB, unless a committee of senior industry players is formed to approve and monitor the expenditure of every single tax dollar that is allocated to the JTB."
