The Editor, Sir:

Why, oh why must we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot? The minister of tourism himself has stated that there is no continuing bad publicity or fallout seen from the recent Montego Bay hijack incident, yet he proposes to "ramp up advertising" to deal with a problem which the Canadian Prime Minister spoke about frankly and sensibly.

The visitors said they would return to Jamaica, the media have let go the negatives in the story and commendations have abounded about our handling of the case. Why then would the minister want to spend money on the ill-advised treatment of repeating and regurgitating this incident? Perhaps he might even wish to buy prime time for an address to the world on BBC, CNN and NBC.

What must be wiser is to ensure that the security arrangements are perfected at the airports, (note that there were warnings about this before the event) and, above, all to find solutions to the well-known crime problem in Montego Bay and the abysmal living conditions of too many of its residents.

Advertising and public relations have their place, but too often they are used to divert us from the real problems - in the case of Jamaica's tourism, too much poverty, crime, harassment and the price-gouging of our visitors.

Main focus

What you should focus on, minister, is to see that the same competent security measures used at the airport be put in place to deal with the lottery scam and widespread wave of crime in Montego Bay.

After this, you should arrange for the security teams to have a holiday at some of our hotels for a job well done. This would be the best form of advertising for our tourism industry and the best message to send to our visitors.

I am, etc.,

DICKIE CRAWFORD

musicman978@hotmail.com

PO Box 1823

Kingston 8