Dear Editor,

I came across a recent article which shared an instance of students at a particular high school being indifferent to the thought of seeking jobs within the tourist industry. For them, the greatest challenge within the sector was the level of inequality in employment opportunities available. They mentioned the hotel industry specifically, as they hold the view that hotel managers are usually seeking only cheap labour.

Then, there are other groups of young people working within the sector for the sole benefit of having a job. Is this the kind of response that we want our youth to have towards our tourism industry?

From these observations we can deduce that when these youngsters think of the tourism sector the response is not, ‘I get to promote Brand Jamaica’ or ‘I can get several opportunities from this’. Instead, they are eagerly looking for the next opportunity.

I believe that it is time to really begin to market tourism to the youth. The first stage would be helping them to recognise the beauty of our island and the value of our culture, especially to their daily lives. We want our young people to gravitate to those features that are traditionally ours, even as they are bombarded with American and other foreign practices which we see so often of late.

Tourists visit countries to have new experiences, and I put it to you that if we do not take the time to market these features to our youth we shall lose elements of our culture and very soon have limited value to attract tourists. The youth represent the country’s future and so should be an involved part of the business of tourism.

Concerned Youth Activist