Caribbean Travel Expert

With a recession hovering in the United States, according to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, American tourists may chose a vacation spot domestically closer to home or in sunny Florida. With millions of Americans losing their jobs and homes in foreclosure, (last month alone 80,000 Americans lost their jobs), millions without healthcare, etc., will this bad economy in the United States adversely affect tourism in Jamaica and the Caribbean at large? One famous American once said that “if America is sick, the world is dead.”

Jamaica and its citizen of over 2.5 million hope that such saying is far from true. With tourism now Jamaica’s number one industry over bauxite, sugar, coffee and bananas, any trickle down of America’s poor economy on that beautiful island may put many Jamaicans out of work, hotels and restaurants closings their doors, tour operators and travel agents going bankrupt,  and possible a destabilization of the Jamaican economy which depends heavily on the tourist dollar.

While I am optimistic that the United States will rejuvenate and survive these tough times as they did during the depression, Jamaica should market and promote its tourist’s attractions in other parts of the world such as Europe, Brazil, China, Japan, India, Pakistan, etc.  The Jamaica Tourist Board Strategists, Sales/Marketing Executives, Minister of Tourism along with Travel and Tour Operators should be busy abroad promoting that beautiful island with competitive package deals and incentives. One way of doing so is to bring back packages such as the Full American Plan (FAP) and European Plan (EP) to the island in contrast to just the “All Inclusive Package” deals.

Jamaica must address the situation of crime on the island in order to maintain its status of being one of the top tourist destinations in the world. While Jamaica is among the world leaders in gun violence and killing per capita, it is also good to report that crimes against tourists is one of the lowest in the world. I am confident and optimistic that Commissioner Admiral Hardley Lewin will radically reduce crime on the island.  However, it is a task for all Jamaicans to fight crime or else face the risk of losing tourists. For more on Jamaica, go to: www.sdcg1.com