Time to Stop the “Smile Orange” Tourism?
As a journalist/writer, I do not rely on statistics or soundbites from successive Jamaican governments as to how wonderful our tourism industry is and how many visitors stepped off the airplane or cruise ship in one year.
Rather, I listen to people who are involved in the industry.
The information is anecdotal obviously, but leads to the important question of whether a significant number of our citizens are being exploited and remain vulnerable at various levels.
-An 18-year-old waitress at a North Coast hotel worried that she might lose “the lickle wuk” because she is relunctant to wear short skirts and “bend in a certain way” before the male guests;
-A fourteen-year-old boy I interviewed sometime ago – recruited to have sex with a tourist for $5,000 one night because “virgin boys” are in demand;
– The 21-year-old female who works in Ocho Rios and lives in a “bad” area in Montego Bay and forced to work until 9 pm;
– The young man scoffing food in the kitchen, despite employees being instructed to throw all surplus into the garbage bin. He had not been paid his weekly wages which were due the day before;
– The employees not paid for a week by a tour company because some passengers on the cruise ships demanded refunds;
-A mature woman working for ten years at a hotel and not entitled to statutory sick or annual leave;
The graduates in Hotel and Tourism Management making beds and cleaning bathrooms while incompetent foreign managers badger them with questions about effective customer relations.
So let us continue singing “Welcome to Jamaica” with our flipping banjos at Sangsters International Airport. After all, the slogan is “Jamaica, No Problem mon“!
By Neo Makeba
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