JAMAICA’S leading hotelier Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart yesterday expressed shock at the “nasty and despicable” comments made by Opposition spokesman on tourism, Dr Wykeham McNeill on the appointment of John Lynch as chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB).

Stewart, the chairman of Sandals Resorts International, lashed McNeill, a former junior minister of tourism, for his attack on Lynch who is the executive vice-president of Miami-based Unique Vacations Inc, worldwide representatives of the hotel chain.

In a lengthy statement which also defended Lynch, Stewart, who is also chairman of the Observer, said he was proud that the high achievers among the professionals employed to his group of companies, starting with himself, had been making themselves available to serve the country.

Following is the full text of Stewart’s statement:

“I feel compelled to speak out strongly against the comments made about the recent appointment of Mr John Lynch as the new chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board. Mr Lynch is an executive vice-president at Unique Vacations Inc, the worldwide representatives for Sandals and Beaches Resorts. He has a track record of 25 years of service to his country at the Jamaica Tourist Board, leaving as deputy director to work in the international market. He has been a key player in the private sector for more than 15 years, every day of his life promoting Jamaica in a way that only great experience and talent can achieve.

In particular, the opposition spokesman on tourism has been very vocal, but in a most unfortunate, uninformed and biased manner. Dr Wykeham McNeill spent most of his time as a junior minister bad-mouthing Portia Simpson Miller as minister of tourism and after that, as prime minister. A similar treatment was meted out by him to former Minister of Tourism Aloun Assamba.

It is my view that after 18 years in administration, the opposition left Jamaica poorer than when they came into office. This can be attributed to sheer lack of judgment and putting inexperienced people into serious jobs. For example, the former minister of finance spent a lot of time closing banks and then demonising the principals, when in fact an experienced person in that job at the time would have found it very simple to fix the problem.

The problem only ballooned into Jamaica’s worst financial nightmare because of inexperience. Generations to come will suffer from a nightmare that with simple experience would have been a non-event.

The opposition long ago sold their souls to certain foreign investors to the detriment of indigenous investors who developed Jamaica as a destination and continue to do so. more so than the so-called “new friends”. What is unforgivable is the abuse of the small hotel sector because of the lack of planning and the protection that they needed.

But here again is the price you pay for experimenting without experience in high-level positions.

So our country has suffered because of reckless and haphazard so-called development of the tourism sector by agreeing to the building of over 5,000 rooms without planning for airlift and risking people’s hard-earned money in the hotel business.

Bamboozling the people

The people of Jamaica were bamboozled by those in public office, including former chairman of the JTB Dennis Morrison, who on a number of occasions made statements without a full appreciation of the facts; they cared little for the performance of the industry and knew fully well that we were heading for a calamity; one with small hotels being placed at a great disadvantage. Most importantly, they did not sound an alarm to the industry or even attempt to use their offices to remedy the problem.

Today, in regards to airlift Jamaica has less air seats to transport ourselves and visitors than three years ago in spite of this large expansion. This puts us on a calamity course that will drive our yields down, force rotation on hotels thereby having staff work fewer weeks, all of which is the result of the incompetence of the few, which will lead to hotel employees becoming poorer.

Why didn’t McNeill use his mouth to warn about this problem or even the effect of the passport issue? Or was there a pact between him, Minister Assamba and Dennis Morrison to mislead the public and the industry and play the three-card game with Jamaica? Or, was it pure negligence and/or incompetence?

Sandals’ contribution to Jamaica Sandals Resorts has nothing to hide and every reason to be the proudest corporate citizen of Jamaica. We do more to expose Jamaica and market Jamaica than the JTB and certain chains put together.

We do more to encourage quality overseas chains to invest in Jamaica and we do more in training both locally and overseas than any other organisation in Jamaica. My organisation does not rely on government favours to do what we do. We proudly represent Jamaica overseas. One only has to tune into CNN, NBC, etc, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the various TV channels in the United Kingdom to see first-hand what we are proudly doing for Jamaica.

Furthermore, we long ago developed a culture to help and support the communities of Jamaica before Sandals existed and for the over 25 years that Sandals has been in existence, this has been the case. We go way beyond the call of duty to see that our team members are assisted either through education to the tertiary level or through a multitude of other areas. We boast a 21-year track record of having staff members distribute toys each Christmas in the communities surrounding our hotels. We are a beacon in community after community.

We are proud to be Jamaica’s largest foreign exchange earner in the industry, with a payroll greater, perhaps, than any other private sector entity in the history of Jamaica.

That culture extends in a multitude of ways, including providing sterling service to the leadership of various entities to the benefit of Jamaica; starting with myself as the president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) from 1984-88 and then president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) in 1990 until the death of my son Jonathon. While I was at the JHTA, it was not the Sandals chain that benefited but rather the smaller hotels and the rest of the tourism sector, making the JHTA a household name across Jamaica. The facts and files are available at the JHTA to everyone.

Our organisation encourages and is extremely proud of those who have made the sacrifice to serve their country, namely Horace Peterkin, elected by his peers and who made a sterling contribution as JHTA president; as well as Wayne Cummings, the current president who fearlessly stands up for what the association voted him in to do; and Christopher Zacca as president of the PSOJ who is also doing a tremendous job.

The list of high achievers does not end there because Edward Khoury, the managing director of another company in the Group, is slated to be the next president of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce. They are all leaders who stand up for what they believe in and for what is good in their country. Their achievements are worthy of emulation. We feel it is our job to build up Jamaica and the people who make up our organisation… a practice which the Opposition should have adopted many years ago.

Nasty and despicable

Now, the comments in relation to John Lynch’s appointment as chairman of the JTB are nasty and despicable. Mr Lynch and the many others who are a part of Sandals or our worldwide representatives Unique Vacations Inc know the industry better and have served their country with more conviction than many who have held public official positions.

I am completely shocked at the statements made by Dr McNeill, and I must state that I have had a tremendous relationship with himself and his family for many years. Truth be told, however, I still struggle to find one outstanding cause that he stood for during his years of service to this country. One thing I have never been afraid of is standing up for what I believe is right, and I believe that the attacks on John Lynch are wrong and inappropriate, but like the old saying goes, “If yu can’t catch Quakoo, yu catch him shut”.

I had hoped and continue to hope for a strong but good quality opposition which genuinely has Jamaica’s best interest at heart. That should not be too much to ask for.

For the 6,000 people who make up Sandals in Jamaica, who work too hard and give so much to Jamaica, they do not deserve to be shunned by a former non-performing junior minister in this manner. The public can rest assured that John Lynch will not just “run with it”. He simply has too much integrity.

I wish to make it abundantly clear that I have spent my life in the hotel industry promoting development and encouraging people worldwide to come and/or stay in Jamaica. Also, most of the current expansion is not a direct competitor to Sandals, in the same way that it is not a direct competitor to the Ritz Carltons and Round Hills of this country. What I take exception to is a set of developers getting carte blanche to do things that none of us could have a hope of getting approval to do. Some of the preferential treatment is liberal to the extreme.

Now, if the playing field is level so that all can expect the same accommodation that is fine, but favouritism on such a grand scale is wrong, and deflates what we have spent our lives defending.

It is very necessary at this time for public persons to think of Jamaica first at all times, and stop the smoke and mirror political game so that we can start to meaningfully alleviate the extreme poverty that now exists in our country and help Jamaicans to really benefit.

For what it is worth, instead of divisiveness within the tourism sector, we need to do what we have hoped to do for the longest time and bring the industry together as a team and stop playing divide and conquer games. In the end, it is all worth it for a better Jamaica which, by the way, is the best and most natural tourism product for sand, sea and mountains all in one vacation.

Lastly, to all concerned, I am prepared to debate any of these issues at any convenient time.”