SSP Diaries | Meeting challenges of a rapidly growing tourism industry

It was a short weekend stay at a hotel on the North Coast that created several experiences and a few thoughts on our tourism product that is in a rapid expansion mode now. Picture a group of senior citizens, three vehicles, all packed with luggage arriving at the hotel early on Friday afternoon for a two-night stay. Upon pulling up outside the main lobby area we received the usual welcome and then we were asked to remove the luggage from our vehicles. Well, I was taken aback, this was not what I was accustomed to and immediately wondered if I had heard right.

Fortunately, another member of staff saw our hesitation and quickly moved forward and started to remove our bags. Notwithstanding the damage had already been done, the declaration was heard by my wife and other friends in our group, the decision was simply that this was the last time we would be coming back to this hotel. To compound the situation a tour bus arrived, parking behind our vehicles. Before the tourists disembarked, the driver went out, opened the luggage compartment and members of the same ‘bell hops’ staff got busy unloading without any words exchanged with the tourists. This simple act, initially, by the bell hops, when weighed with how the tourists were treated, constitutes discriminatory treatment which has no place in our hotels or country.

Fast-forward to booking in. Upon reaching the desk, producing our confirmation bookings, we were informed that they could not book us in until they had confirmation from their head office that we had paid for our stay. Happily, temperatures do not rise that easily in senior citizens, so we decided to have a seat and relax while they made calls to their overseas office to confirm our bookings. We had email confirmations from their overseas office. In this day of technological advancements, we are still being made to suffer at the hands of the incompetent. I say this because despite being calm throughout the experience, the oldest member of the group was 98 years old and would need to relax after the journey to the hotel.

Enquiries about the location of the car park proved challenging. It was some distance away and from all indications, very much still under construction. There were no signs of an urgency to have this completed and one had to learn, by the way, of a shuttle system that you could hitch a ride on to get back to the lobby. With a leg injury, this proved to be a saving grace, despite the long wait. I later found out that this service is offered to guests to move from accommodation blocks to restaurants and entertainment areas, etc. Upon requesting a ride to get back to our block after dinner that evening, it took an extremely long time to materialise, nearly an hour. When the staff was asked if there was a problem, the reply was simply, ‘mi phone but it na look like dem waan come.’

As hinted before, this was not our first visit to this hotel. Previous visits had far better experiences that caused us to want to return. We later learned from our ‘Guest Experiences’ agent that certain changes had been made by the hotel’s ownership. Guest Experiences was now the new Butler service, for example.GREATER DIVERSIFICATION

In a rapidly expanding tourism product environment, it is important that the drive forward is understood by all stakeholders, whether foreign or local concerns, and that there is a proper alignment with the goals and objectives of the nation. The Government must see to this and to do so there must be a system of monitoring/evaluating the product to ensure the degree of conformity/customer satisfaction desired. The experiences above challenge the possibility of returning customers as well as first-time vacationers who would have had read or heard about such encounters. They tarnish the hotels reputation as well as the tourism product and Jamaica Brand. On the positive side, the reception staff were polite and professional, the food services and the food itself were good, the rooms were very nice and the entertainment package generally good.

One is left to wonder now if the product can be made ready for further diversification, giving our visitors a deeper cultural experience and understanding of our people. Organised visits to, a kumina or myal experience, (these are not secret events but are an essential part of our history), maroon villages (if not already being done), improving and marketing more of our battle sites and military fortifications that are strewn across Jamaica, literally forgotten. Additionally, there is greater exposure to our country to be had by having a vibrant intra island aviation facility that will allow greater experiences across the island, facilitated by faster travel times. I even venture to propose that there be frequent visitations to Gordon House by tourists spending time in Jamaica, to witness firsthand the Westminster Parliamentary System! To cap it off, I think that there is nothing better than having our own national airline. As a brand and national symbol in its day Air Jamaica did a great deal for lifting the spirits of Jamaicans locally and overseas. The country yearns for another such experience that will serve Jamaica and its interests well.

Greater diversification means a greater effort to ensure improved training and re-training mechanisms are put in place and the means of ensuring conformity to the standards accepted nationally and internationally. The rapid expansion of the product being witnessed calls for better overall management of the inputs, outputs/deliverables which will inevitably dictate how the legacy built will be sustained.

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