Some thoughts on Tourism

Editor: We use our pension fund to build hotels and invite foreigners to run them? But is it worth it?

As an investment can pensioners expect reasonable returns in the short and medium terms? If local architects, engineers and builders were fully engaged in the project much finance would have circulated in the local and national economies. Hotel work is seasonal and usually attracts minimum wages. It is hoped that tips would complement the wages, but this is not a reliable source of income. The managers and skilled workers are usually foreigners. In the final analysis the profits are repatriated to the foreign countries, and we are left with the crumbs.

Additionally, the hours required of the hotel workers mean that they are away from their children during critical hours when they are needed at home. This can be mitigated if the hotels support after-school and homework centers, but these are missing from the communities.

It appears that hotel guests desire private beaches, but they apparently are unwilling to pay a reasonable rental fee to the communities. While workers keep the beds and the grounds of the hotels, their own villages and communities are dilapidated.

The hope for a market for local farming produce of crops, meat and fish must be organized to derive benefits.

Gambling, prostitution and drug abuse seem to be undesirable spill offs from the hotel industry. The challenge for the social workers is to help the communities to benefit and not be harmed by this industry.

We need to assess the various forms of tourism and determine what tourists we need to attract, and develop our product to realize descent returns. Perhaps the approach needed is to include in our plans a development path for our local people, develop our beaches and tourist sites for our local population and organize local people to benefit from sharing them with visitors.

Anthony G. Stewart, PhD