Dear Editor,

Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett recently brought a bill to amend the Travel Agency Regulations law to Parliament which he suggests will wipe out what he says is “a raft of unregistered travel agencies”. The intent is good and we all hope it will help to regulate some areas of the industry which have been long neglected.

Please permit me to ask some questions and make points in relation to the proposed law whose intent is to track illegal operators who now operate under the radar as well as other points relevant to the industry.

Will revision of the law increasing fines also provide the mechanisms to detect the “rafts” of unregistered agents whose operations have for some time been an open secret but which have, for the most part, remained undetected by the Registrar of Travel Agencies department? This department operates under the Ministry of Tourism whose job it is to see to the enforcement of the onerous but necessary rules and regulations under which legitimate registered travel agencies must operate. Will they be better placed to ferret out existing “rogue” operators who use the internet to provide basic travel services without the costly overheads such as having signs, suitable business locations, pay all government taxes and annual audit fees, utilities and train and employ staff to provide professional service? What additional tools will be provided to enable them to detect these illegal operators other than the threat of increased penalties, if detected? Will the spotlight be turned only on outside agents who sell for registered agents much like any sales agent that must conform to criteria set by the agencies which they represent or their services would be terminated?

The minister states that this revised law will “play a key role in the whole business of reservations” as they will “continue to look at the overall Act so as to give travel agents a real place in the system, because there is a place for them”.

May I remind the minister that history shows that travel agents have always played an important role in the country’s development by providing professionally experienced travel services, including assistance in obtaining the required travel documents. In the 1950s they also helped Jamaicans to migrate to the United Kingdom when they got the opportunity to obtain jobs and improve their living standards. Some of these later migrated to the United States and Canada which resulted in the large numbers living outside of Jamaica (the diaspora), returned residents and the sizeable remittances sent to their Jamaican families that are so important to the island’s economy

May I also suggest that the minister could further help all travel agents to find a “real place in the system” if he and his government could find an equitable method whereby government travel accounts which have not, to my knowledge, been publicaly revealed to come up with an equitable distribution system in which legitimate travel agents who wish to serve them can participate. A record of payment should be sufficient to allow agencies to extend the period of credit that goes with these services.

Beverly Tomlin

bevtomlin@gmail.com