BARBADOS HAS just received some tips from Jamaica on how to manage crises like the one surrounding the extradition of alleged drug lord Christopher Coke in such a way as to lessen the fallout for tourism.
Director general of the Jamaica Ministry of Tourism, Carrole Guntley, told several tourism planners meeting at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre last Wednesday that they need to work with the media in any crisis to get positive messages out.
However, they must understand that international media attracted by crises “ain’t coming for no soft story”.
Tourism planners and promoters have to establish a relationship of trust with the media and point reporters to positive developments, but explore other avenues for getting the good news out, she told the gathering.
Coke, wanted on drug and weapons charges, was extradited to the United States in June, one month after a manhunt for him sparked violence that left at least 73 people dead in the capital, Kingston.
Addressing the 5th Annual Multi-Hazard Disaster Management Symposium, Guntley said the international media rushed to Jamaica and had produced several hard-hitting reports on the extradition.
However, tourism officials, working with state information channels, the police and other agencies, had been able to reduce the fallout for the vital industry of the crisis and its coverage, she remarked.Projecting an increaseShe said visitor arrivals in Jamaica had fallen after the crisis but were recovering and tourism officials were now projecting a six per cent increase in arrivals this year over 2009.
Executive director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), Jeremy Collymore, told the meeting that the Caribbean was “one of the most tourist-dependent regions of the world whilst at the time being one of the most hazardous”.
The Caribbean must get accustomed to factoring the vagaries of life into its developmental plans, he said. (TY)
