Dear Editor,

I am a relieved Jamaican after reading your January 5 article, “Greater support coming for some community-based tourism projects”. We have finally taken a significant step in fulfilling one of the major components of our Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism launched nearly a decade ago – facilitating communities to become lead stakeholders in tourism.

There has always been a stakeholder imbalance in Caribbean tourism. Mass tourism facilitated the disparity. However, with the buzz of sustainable development and the re-emergence of niche markets like cultural heritage, local (cultural and indigenous) communities must now be put front and centre in tourism development planning, management and ownership.

The strategic positioning of cultural heritage assets as tourism products will allow for this paradigm shift in tourism. Except in indigenous communities like our maroon villages, locals fight not only for recognition of their assets in the tourism market, but ownership of those assets. One challenge is that there is no legal framework to facilitate community ownership of heritage assets, which are often outside the financial grasp of poor communities. Added to this is the absence of expertise in heritage conservation and management within communities.

These are not insurmountable challenges. A community-based heritage tourism model should incorporate sustained training of locals in these and other relevant areas. A user-friendly heritage manual should be made available to every household. A heritage-based incentive scheme should make it feasible for registered community groups and/or individual local business interests to obtain loans for acquiring historic buildings and sites (for heritage tourism development) that sit idle in many communities. Undoubtedly, this newly announced community-based tourism initiative would address these issues where locals wish to tap into their vast heritage reservoirs.

I would caution that as we move ahead to finalise this needed community-based tourism policy, we ensure that supporting platforms are in place to ensure sustainability of the programme. Heritage education in school curricula is vital. But heritage education does not stop at being sufficiently aware of one’s history. It means having at least a basic understanding of conservation, management, and marketing of heritage assets.

The Jamaica Social Investment Fund has been doing phenomenal work in local communities, so I have every confidence that the process will go well. My only trepidation is with the history of political interference and private sector “high-handedness” that sometimes creeps into community-based initiatives. Let’s keep our eyes on the ball and remind ourselves every step of the way that local communities are better vanguards of their environments. Allow locals to lead!

JN Lindsay

University of Tsukuba

Japan

heritagefanatic@yahoo.com