IT’S easily one of the best items of news associated with the current general election campaign: hotels are showing strong bookings for the winter tourist season.

In fact, the season, tourism officials have told us, is shaping up to be even better than last year.

That, we know, will warm all our hearts. For we remember well the times when the tourism sector would record significant decline once Jamaica started making preparations to choose a government. We recall particularly the campaign for the 1980 general election when political violence claimed at least 800 Jamaican lives and severely damaged many industries, including tourism which relies heavily on stability for survival.

Great effort, time and money went into correcting the international image of Jamaica which not only scared potential visitors, but served as fodder for the foreign press.

A measure of the success achieved in reducing incidents of political violence lies in the decision of one major US television network not to send a news team to Jamaica to cover the 1989 general election.

Why?

The four fatalities associated with the campaign at the time the network called was simply not newsworthy in the eyes of its managers. Thankfully, that TV network had no reason to reverse its decision, as the 89 election campaign was a vast improvement on previous years.

Since then, Jamaica has been getting better at electioneering and we have seen in this current campaign an impressive maturing of the electorate. The images published in the media of supporters of both major political parties enjoying Nomination Day activities together are most refreshing and give us hope for the future. For that, we maintain, is how we should conduct our politics.

No space should be provided for intimidation and intolerance of opposing views because the concept of allowing all opinions to contend in an atmosphere of civility is vital to the preservation of democracy.

And, as we pointed out in this space last week, none of us would want to be subjected to the alternative to democracy.

So, the fact that visitors feel no fear in vacationing here during the election is, we submit, a big plus for our democracy and a statement of confidence in the high quality of the country’s tourism industry.

Our hope is that Jamaican elections will get to the point where visitors will look forward to attending rallies staged by the political parties. For those meetings, we believe, will put them in closer contact with the wider populace and give them the kind of cultural experience that is an ideal of the travel industry.

May the eight remaining days of campaigning be marked by vigorous, but peaceful electioneering and continued effort by the political parties to discuss issues with the electorate. Because after the votes are counted and a winner declared, we all have to live here.