Tourism is the source of multiple economic benefits to any locality or country that attracts a steady flow of travelers. Foreign visitors can become a valuable source of foreign currency. So, a developing country should use its chance and reach its peak by boosting its revenues and getting its place in the competitive industry. Jamaica is focused on developing sustainable tourism and is ready to cope with difficulties on its way in order to get the tourism benefits and not harm its unique nature.
But tourism has not only positive but also negative factors that can endanger the economy of a country and social well-being of the locals. For instance, in Jamaica expenditures and leakages out of the economy are increasing, as well as spending on modern infrastructure. In order to become competitive in this business, the country needs to find international investors. Moreover, Jamaica can face with a serious problem of sustaining the environment. This country should make substantial investments in education and become environmentally and socially prepared for new offers that it can make (Ukessays, 2015).
Jamaican economy is not stable, and one of its most serious problems is to ensure the control of local people. The level of life is low as there are a lot of unemployed people, the country is not able to export enough products for currency exchange, so it is difficult for Jamaica to control its economy. In case government decide to use tourism as the main source of income, most local people will be occupied with seasonal work, thus increasing the rate of poverty (Ukessays, 2015).
Moreover, Jamaica depends greatly on other countries because of currency exchange and earnings in other countries. Also, there can be certain leakages of expenditures out of the economy, opportunity cost, seasonality, problems with foreign capital investments and the necessity of creation of new extra costs. Some sums of money cannot be spent on the Jamaica’s development as this money is spent in another country or saved up for further benefits for tourists. As Jamaica has to pay off its loans, most of the profit is taken away by the foreign investors. Because of huge TNCs (Trans National Companies), most of the profit is spent abroad, only 7% stays in Jamaica (Quizlet). As the tourism industry is huge, rich and powerful and it gives the loans to the country, the holiday industry has the possibility to control the direction Jamaica takes and generally do whatever it wants. Some tourism companies are so powerful that the government of Jamaica can not claim tax on their income, thus losing a significant amount of money (Marked by teachers).
As there is a great number of attractions or facilities and they compete for customers. So, new tourism project takes away travelers from existing projects, thus, previous investments are not justified.
Twenty two thousand people are working in the tourism industry. But the jobs are seasonal and low paid, so most local people live in poverty (Quizlet) though foreign managers tend to earn more. Problems concerning seasonality occur when there is an over capacity during the hot season. During the off-season, there are few tourists in the country, so local people who work in tourism organizations do not have enough work (Ukessays, 2015).
Jamaica’s economy depends greatly on tourism income (20% of GDP), that is why in case tourist numbers lessen, the country’s economy will be weakened (Quizlet).
Though infrastructure is well-developed in the country, most local people cannot afford facilities that are created for tourists (for example, private beaches) and that contributes to appearance of resentment.
Resorts require a huge amount of fresh water, so these resources are taken away from locals. Moreover, they can not use tropical area for farming.
Jamaica has serious problems with drugs and sex tourism. Generally, the society suffers from cultural pollution (Cool geography).
Tourism in Jamaica negatively influences on environment as well. Coastal vegetation was removed in order to free some place for hotels and that harmed wildlife. Moreover, hotels pollute the environment with untreated sewage, thus killing coral reefs. Also, coral reefs are destroyed by water sports. So, Jamaica steadily loses its natural beauty and the heritage gets spoilt (Quizlet).
So, though tourism can be considered one of the maintains of the Jamaica’s economy, it is has a lot of negative sides. In an attempt to solve some problems, Jamaica branches tourism out in community tourism. Community tourism is contextualized in the framework of the conception of sustainable tourism that nowadays is a critical pillar for tourism in any country. It involves primary elements of the core attractions and destination’s appeal including natural environment, culture (religion, cuisine, music and arts), climate, history and entertainment. Community tourism is a fast growing sector as it provides the travelers with personal connection with local people that enhances their understanding of unique culture. The communities also gets some benefits from this type of tourism, as they interpret their culture to new audience and diversify their economy (Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment, 2015). Travelers stay with local people in their homes, that directly benefit the locals, also that benefits ecotourism as tourists are located in the Blue Mountains that has low densities and few tourist lodges. Additionally, there are ecotourism lodges on the coastline. The aim of these lodges is to lessen the quantity of waste, recycle water and use solar panels for producing power. Such resorts do not occupy a lot of space, most resorts have 16 huts or lodges. One of the most popular resorts is Great Huts Resort that is situated near Boston Beach that besides these features offer educational tours (Cool geography).
Though developing countries, including Jamaica, have a desire to develop a sustainable tourism, it is quite difficult to be implemented. The country Commission defined the term “sustainable tourism” as the tourism that can sustain the local economy not damaging the environment on which tourism depends on. Thus, it is significant to ensure the balance between economy and resources of the destination. In Jamaica, there cannot be any easy way to make tourism main way to economic stability and guarantee sustainable development at the same time, as these things contradict one another (Academia, 2007).
Jamaica has started developing several initiatives that should help to achieve sustainable tourism development. One of the most important initiatives is the Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development in Jamaica (2002). The problems that are described above make the implementation of this plan a difficult and slow process. Clayton (2003) believes that the most serious obstacle that prevents Caribbean developing countries from implementation of sustainable tourism development is the lack of finances. As there is a possibility that commercial gains of tourism will destroy the environment that attracts tourists, it is quite problematic for Jamaica to achieve sustainability.
The Master plan has a great potential for making a great impact on tourism industry in Jamaica. This plan has three major aims (Journal of Tourism Insights, 2012):
1. to work out a comprehensive planning framework;
2. to consider the sequencing and timing of the main responsibilities, roles, and programs of key stakeholders;
3. to work out the plan of future direction, composition and shape of the tourism industry.(Commonwealth Secretariat, 2002) The main purpose of the Master Plan is to change the industry from the unsustainable mode on the sustainable.
The plan has five major objectives that follow the aim of achieving sustainable development of the industry (Journal of Tourism Insights, 2012):
1. The sustainable market should be developed on the basis of cultural, historic, natural and built heritage of Jamaica.
2. Increase the quality and the types of attractions in order to enhance the visitors’ experience.
3. Create an inclusive industry that will benefit all the Jamaican people and the country in general.
4. Implement the bottom-up planning approach to the industry development where the communities play a leading role in developing, managing and defining the tourists’ experience.
5. Make the tourism industry contribute to the preservation of Jamaican environment.
The Master Plan has the following aims (Academia, 2007):
- Identify the priority regions for development of tourism in Jamaica and also the regions that determinate the social and economic impact of tourism.
- Identify the tourism market.
- Identify investments needs.
- Work out the framework that will be able to attract private investments;
- Facilitate the development of tourism industry.
There is a great variety of ways that Jamaican government can follow to make tourism more sustainable. Long-term prospects for further growth mainly depend on creating adequate supply chains and high-quality infrastructure. Also, particular institutions should guarantee that tourists’ activities are sustainable and meet the environmental, economic, and social objectives. Here are the main requirements for sustainable tourism in Jamaica (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, 2013):
- Sharing the information about how environment can be damaged and how it will lessen the attractiveness of the destination.
- Sharing the information about the methods and principles of environmental management, for instance, ways of water and energy conservation.
- Letting tourism companies have an access to the information about the market and providing them with financial resources.
- Coordinate the private investors in a tourism sector and the government departments that deal with environment and tourism.
- Improve the infrastructure in all tourism sites, especially, in places where private-sector investors are hardly to go.
Additionally, the development of unique Jamaica’s heritage is the central plank of the Master Plan, as it should differentiate the country from all other Caribbean islands. It is considered the key to sustainable tourism development because it is planned to contribute to tourism showing the aspiration and culture of Jamaican people. The main areas for development of the architectural heritage, based on such criteria as the tourism potential, accessibility and heritage significance, are Seville, Falmouth, Spanish Town and Port Royal. In addition, the plan identified such heritage themes as slavery, natural wonders, emancipation, forts, churches, the Maroons and industrial heritage. (Journal of Tourism Insights, 2012)
In order to push the stakeholders to follow the principles of sustainable tourism, the government should consider the following issues (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, 2013):
- Clustering, that can advocate for the environmental management (for instance, design regulations), make benefits from the economy of scale (for example, sharing the cost of building the road) and make more benefits to communities (for example, regulating the waste management system). Thus, the entire cluster will be in a better competitive position.
- Linking with the local suppliers of services and goods.
- Development of human resources and skills of local people.
- Access to investment and finance. Commonly in developing countries, it is extremely costly to access to a credit. So, the banks should rethink the way they evaluate the investments that concern environment and offer the credits that are attractive and financially viable.
- Mainstreaming of tourism in Jamaica’s policy and institutional framework.
- Marketing and promotion of tourism.
- Conservation of Jamaica’s cultural heritage and its protection.
Jamaica orients on a more sustainable future for its tourism sector, and is going to use the distinctive advantages that the country has, for example, Jamaica’s vibrant culture, cuisine, and music, also a wide range of endemic species and ecological habitats. Thanks to these advantages, Jamaica will be able to diversify the tourism products and promote new market segments, such as sports tourism, yachting, marine tourism, health tourism, cultural and culinary tourism. Also Jamaica plans to broaden its geographic source market by growing the level of arrivals from Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe and develop new markets, for instance, Chinese, while continuing the consolidation of its presence in the North American market.
Jamaica plans to use the following strategies to increase the economic value of tourism (Tourism Task Force, 2009):
- diversifying in the higher value-added market segments,
- increasing the usage of inputs and culture in every tourism area,
- increasing the participation in the industry by Jamaican stakeholders,
- promoting investments in the sector,
- strengthening the linkages between tourism industry and other sectors of economy.
It is planned to increase the international competitiveness of the tourism industry by improving working conditions and level of customer service. The social and environmental sustainability is planned to be enhanced by strengthening the integration of tourism with planning of sustainable land usage and environmental management and cope with harassment and crime with the help of the national efforts. (Tourism Task Force, 2009).
For Jamaica, the tourism industry suggests the possibility of a positive response to globalization in case the country will produce unique products and offer them to generating markets. As a result of right policy, not just in-bound tourism will be accessed, but also global out-bound tourism market as well as general market for the products, produced in Jamaica. Creativity and innovation are the keys for reaching the maximum results. To increase the benefits from tourism the government may improve the profitability by lowering business costs, lessening leakages, increasing the number of local ownership in the industry and target high-income market segments in order to increase the earnings per visitor (Tourism Task Force, 2009).
While planning the long-term development of the tourism sector in Jamaica, it is significant to take into account potential socio-economic and environmental impacts. In 1993, the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica was established on the bases of the debt-for-nature swap between Jamaican government and the government of the United States of America. It offered a long-term mechanism for implementing a wide range of projects that support community-based tourism, national parks, botanical gardens and other protected areas (Tourism Task Force, 2009). The following alternative forms of tourism play a significant role for the long-term future of Jamaica:
- Green Tourism
- Environmentally-Friendly Travel
- Science Tourism
- Ecotourism
- Responsible Tourism
- Ethical Tourism
While developing these alternative forms, a number of issues should be considered, for instance, the policy that is directed to increasing the quantity and quality of environmentally friendly facilities, the development of low-impact tourism. Also it is vital to take into consideration that ecotourism needs special area, site and regional
planning. (Tourism Task Force, 2009)
So, tourism is Jamaica is number one industry in absolute size. It is also number one export sector (Oxford Economics, 2012). Tourism has always shown its constant growth, even at the times when the rest of the region experienced a decline. Jamaica has a doubtless competitive advantage in tourism because of its air service, location, cultural heritage, natural beauty, and strong international brand. Nowadays Jamaica is focused on developing sustainable tourism. Special plans were developed in order to find the ways to cope with difficulties connected with sustainability, get additional tourism benefits and leave local nature and culture as beautiful as it is now.
References
Academia, 2007. BARRIERS TO SUSTAINABLE TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN JAMAICA. http://www.academia.edu/11104055/BARRIERS_TO_SUSTAINABLE_TOURISM_DEVELOPMENT_IN_JAMAICA [Accessed 24 March 2016].
Clayton, A. (2003). Policy coherence and sustainable tourism in the Caribbean. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 15(3), 188-191.
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Commonwealth Secretariat (2002). Master plan for sustainable tourism development – Jamaica. London: Commonwealth Secretariat.
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Quizlet. Tourism: Mass tourism advantages, problems & solutions: Case study, Jamaica Caribbean. [online] Available at: https://quizlet.com/24133615/tourism-mass-tourism-advantages-problems-solutions-case-study-jamaica-caribbean-flash-cards / [Accessed 24 March 2016].
Ukessays, 2015. The Problems And Issues Jamaica Faces Tourism Essay. [online] Available at: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/tourism/the-problems-and-issues-jamaica-faces-tourism-essay.php [Accessed 24 March 2016].
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, 2013. Sustainable tourism: Contribution to economic growth and sustainable development. [pdf]. Available at: http://unctad.org/meetings/en/SessionalDocuments/ciem5d2_en.pdf [Accessed 24 March 2016].
