LAST WEEK, we published a news item with complaints from the citizens of Roaring River in Westmoreland that their share of tourism had declined because of the poor state of the roads leading to attractions in the community.
Those attractions include a large cave which is maintained by the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) in conjunction with the Roaring River Citizens Association. But according to the residents, tour operators have shunned the pothole-riddled roads which have been deteriorating even after former Tourism Minister, Francis Tulloch, had promised to have them fixed from as far back as 1999.
No sooner had the news item appeared on The Gleaner Online edition last Friday, March 7, a reader from Ohio promptly filed a rebuttal which we published in a letter to the Editor the following day. The roads had nothing to do with it, this reader said, citing a plague of visitor harassment which appears to have reached the extreme stage of actual extortion.
This claim has been supported by subsequent letters, two of which we publish jointly as today's Letter(s) of the Day. One of these visitors, who has been coming here for 23 years, declares that the incidence of visitor harassment "gets a new chapter every year".
It appears that tourists are now confronted by harassers, sometimes on motorbikes, demanding money for escort services to the attractions. Verbal abuse of visitors is commonplace and tourists have been scared away by the behaviour of these extortionists.
The former Tourism Minister, at an October 1999 meeting with residents, had reportedly given an assurance that Roaring River would be used as a pilot project for community tourism.
Not much seems to have happened for this small community which is off the beaten track of major resorts which tend to get official focus. The tourism authorities should realise that visitors have access to the Internet and can spread the word, good or bad, about places they have visited.
As one of today's letter writers put it, the residents of Roaring River should "wise up and get rid of the extortionists". Visitors will talk about the great times they have had rather than warn others not to go to Roaring River.
Their MP, Dr Karl Blythe, should also listen to their plea and take corrective action.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
