THE Tourism Linkages Network says the local tourism industry is not tilted in favour of those at the very top, but instead is a playing field that avails ordinary people the chance to benefit financially.

The network also maintains that there are currently sufficient links between the tourism sector and other economic sectors to facilitate that balance.

“I think it is much improved. I think 10 years back we didn’t focus so much on the linkages — we were more excited about bringing in new developments, bringing in new hotels and to get more jobs for our people — and, therefore, we would report how many people are employed in the tourism sector. There has been a greater focus on the linkages to tourism,” Carolyn McDonald-Riley, director of the network at the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) told the Jamaica Observer last Thursday.

McDonald-Riley said that over the last five to six years there has been a greater push to uncover what tourism means to “the man on the street”.

“I think that’s where the dynamics changed. How do I sit here, not being affiliated with tourism, and it means something to me? And the answer really is me supplying that sector and earning from it. I really have to say kudos to the current Administration that would’ve been in office and therefore channelled the energies,” McDonald-Riley told the Sunday Observer.

In June 2021, Caricom (Caribbean Community) reported that Jamaica’s tourism sector continues to lead the recovery efforts for the island’s economy, earning US$1.31 billion, of which US$97.58 million has been accrued directly by the Government through CARICOM Business, a weekly business news aggregation service.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, speaking on the progress of the sector at the annual Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association’s Caribbean Travel Marketplace event in October in San Juan, Puerto Rico, said he was happy that robust recovery continues to take place locally, despite a continuation of pandemic-induced challenges, flight cancellations, and supply chain disruptions.

The ministry said after months of closure following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the tourism sector has, as at October 2022, raked in over US$5.7 billion in earnings since reopening its borders in June 2020.

Over five million tourists have visited the island during the same period as a result of increased stopover and cruise passenger arrivals. This adds to the country’s strong recovery which, up to June of this year, saw arrivals of over 224,000 — 2,000 more than that of the pre-pandemic period.

McDonald-Riley added, “The truth is, if we have over four million people coming to Jamaica, more than the population that we have, there has to be some exchange of wealth — and that exchange of wealth is only going to be accepted when the ordinary man starts to benefit. So, I think our leaders have seen that and over time we have been trying to shift the dynamics for the ordinary person to benefit, whether is it that you put together beads nicely, make beautiful jewellery, or plant food.”

Previously, McDonald-Riley was hired as an economist for the Ministry of Tourism to coordinate and implement effective sustainable strategies to strengthen as well as facilitate linkages between tourism and other economic sectors, namely agriculture, manufacturing and entertainment.

She admitted that it wasn’t an easy undertaking.

“At the ministry then, we were very concerned about policy directives and how we could make our industry more attractive, even when we had adversities. So, we would’ve had to look at incentive programmes that would work: some short-term, some long-term; what were the outlooks; where exactly do we indicate to our marketers that they should be positioning themselves; and looking at the economic indicators as to how well we were doing what,” Riley recalled.

“It was not easy but I would say, at the time we were more competing with other destinations as opposed to what we do now, which is ‘co-peting’,” she continued.

McDonald-Riley spent over 10 years administering the incentives schemes of the sector, monitoring the industry’s performance, and analysing its impact and opportunities.

She told the Sunday Observer that the toll of the ordinary man became even more palpable during COVID-19 lockdowns.

“We saw some farmers not having anywhere to sell their food, we saw egg farmers not being able to supply the tourism industry, we saw our creative sector not being able to find a space to perform. That is when we really felt the true impacts of COVID-19,” she said.

McDonald-Riley also noted that there has been a shift from the “sand, sun, sea” marketing strategy for local tourism. She said there is now a “blue ocean” strategy.

“Rather than competition we look at ‘co-petition’ — as in how we compete together. We also look at what are our strengths, and we use that. So, it’s not so much sand, sun and sea which is important but how we use our people and our culture – the assets that we have to sell tourism. There is a big difference when a tourist drops into Jamaica as opposed to anywhere else in the world,” she reasoned.

“The warmth, the excitement, the fire, our food, and just how we put things together. They have said that in the surveys that we have had. So, how we have been looking at it now is using these strategies.”

These strategies, she said, also have to be maintained during the Christmas season when traffic coming into the country is also high.

“We have a lot of people coming in. If you try to book now, there’s absolutely nowhere for you to go. We have been trying to engage more Airbnbs, apartment villas, guest houses because we are trying to get everybody to have a piece of the pie. So while we don’t have winter in terms of the weather, it is still among one of the strongest times that we have people coming here,” she said.