THE EDITOR, Sir:PASSPORTS FOR tourists? There was a time when many Jamaicans were lamenting the fact that tourists could come to Jamaica on driver's licences and other such documents.
Now that the American government is requiring passports for its citizens to re-enter their country after visiting Jamaica and other countries, we are hearing that some Jamaicans in the tourism sector are suggesting that Jamaica should pay for the passports of these proposed visitors. This is ludicrous!
Let us use the funds to improve the economic, living, educational and training standards of our own people so that they will not want to harass the tourists but, rather, will want to share their surroundings and cultural practices with them.
Why is it that St. Ann is now the poorest parish? With tourism, bauxite, agriculture? Why is it that there are parts of St. Ann with no tertiary training facilities for our young people? Why is it that there are about twenty squatter communities in and around Montego Bay? Gone are the days when I would feel comfortable taking tourists on a walking tour through the historical sections of Spanish Town.
The tourists can pay for their own passports, so what I would like to see happen in Jamaica is that we build tourism on the happiness and personal satisfaction of Jamaicans. It is, therefore, not too late for the tourism officials and planners to use the suggested funds to help Jamaicans to develop themselves and their communities which these same Jamaicans will then share with the tourists. This is how many countries built their tourism product first for their own people, then for visitors.
Therefore, harassment and crime would be reduced!
I am, etc.,
ELAINE CHAPLIN
Meet-the-People Volunteer
Sherbourne Heights, Kingston 9
