Desmond Henry TREASURE BEACH:
AS THE fallout effects of this dastardly and unnecessary war take place, we are all being exposed to an entirely new vocabulary of battle. One phrase which stands out is 'collateral damage'. In an everyday sense, this means either an unintended consequence or an unexpected benefit, depending on which side you're on. The word 'damage' suggests, however, that in the case of war the final result is almost always more bad than good.
I got to thinking about this phrase as it applies to our tourism, and how an industry as fickle as it is, could suffer all kinds of collateral damage of the unintended variety. The fact that tourism is an industry based almost entirely on civil relationships between peoples and countries, makes it very dependent on acceptable levels of conduct between societies, their environments, communities and institutions. Thus, when a bum on the beach, for example, makes it difficult for visitors to that beach to enjoy themselves, he becomes part of the industry's collateral damage called harassment. Harassers on our beaches, on the streets, in the visitors' shops, at attraction sites, or haranguing tour buses, are all elements of the damaging collateral factors in tourism. So, too, are terrorists who bomb airplanes; charcoal burners who defoliate mountains; stray animals which roam the highways and unthinking persons who litter the landscape.
PROPOSAL TO ELIMINATE
Once, when I was Tourism Director, I remember carefully developing a proposal that would, once and for all, eliminate the potential harasser from the beach. It had three main features:
To produce as comprehensively as possible a complete personality profile of a typical beach harasser. This would include his physical make-up, mode of dress, pattern of behaviour, body language, manner of articulation and patterns of access
To outfit specially trained beach wardens with shoulder-held video cameras to secretly capture and record the beach harasser in action
To compile a complete training and identification documentary, including films and sketches, on a typical beach harasser.
The intent was to recognise, apprehend, remove and punish such persons, once and for all. I heard all kinds of reasons from the then Ministry of Tourism why it could not be done, for fear of violating individual rights. Truth is, we lacked the guts then and still do now, to take strong action to preserve the country's most important foreign exchange earner, and to punish wrongdoers.
FROM TWO DIFFERENT PLANETS
In the broader area of visitor terrorism, the disadvantages are even more ominous. The only possible relationship between tourism and terrorism is an accidental phonetic one. They somehow sound almost alike. Beyond that, they should not even be on the same planet. One is based on honest hospitality; the other is rank inhospitableness of the worst kind. Tourism and terrorism cannot co-exist in the same place at the same time. They just don't mix.
When, therefore, followers of Islam threaten "to track Americans wherever they go" in a manner designed to "get even", we should see it for what it is: the real possibility of US citizens being targeted and harmed while visiting Jamaica. Or even worse, the possibility of a crowded cruise ship being bombed or torpedoed at sea.
I raise these, to try and drive us out of the kind of harassment fatigue to which we have become accustomed, and which make us believe that such personal vulnerabilities are part and parcel of the tourism business. They are not. Close to 80 per cent of our hospitality earnings emanate from the American market and if, in the present circumstance, we can't see the direct and obvious collateral threat to us, then we are far dumber than I thought.
What all this suggests is this: There is an emergency need to devise and carry out bold, specific and imaginative programmes aimed at anticipating and pre-empting tourism's potential collateral damage. I believe that the Prime Minister should summon a full and frank-speaking meeting of all the country's communicative and business interests in the tourism sector to think-through, discuss and design a far-reaching communication programme to meet all likely collateral damage to the industry. It should include all media editors, writers, JTB, JHTA, JIS, hotel PR managers and the Public Relations Society of Jamaica. Its aim should be to anticipate, pre-empt and nullify all likely collateral harm to the industry. It is high time we show some assertiveness somewhere. Let's start in Tourism.
The Bottom Line: Human beings who are positioned to learn from others are mostly noted for their disinclination to do so.
Desmond Henry is a marketing strategist based in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth.
