Apr 28 2008
Are Spanish Hotels Trashing Jamaica?
The Jamaican Observer newspaper recently published a scathing article attacking major Spanish Hotels on the island for diminishing the Jamaican image among tourists.
The article outlines a long list of grievances, from the oversight to flagrant disregard of environmental protocols, irreversible shoreline damage, and shaddy building processes that have resulted in injuries to tourists.
“In the heyday of Caribbean tourism, Jamaica was regarded as a high-end destination whereas Spain was seen as down market - a short hop for the working-class and students fresh out of college with beer money in their pockets. Men like John Pringle and Heinz Simonitsch made Jamaica the destination of choice,” the article details.
“Over the last six years, some six hotel chains coming out of Spain have established cheap but cheerful all-inclusive hotels catering to a more down-market visitor at a time when Jamaica has been trying to reposition itself as a mid- to high-end destination in order to extract the most out of the tourism dollar.”
“Jamaica cannot afford to be the Torremolinos of the Caribbean,” said an industry analyst. “A glut of all-inclusive hotels at US$120 a room per night will hurt us, and the likes of Four Seasons, Mandarin and Trump will steer well clear of Jamaica. The trickle down effect will be minimal. Let’s not forget that the industry depends on gratuities, and these cheap all-inclusives do not provide those. What you will see is that the Jamaican tourism dollar will contract.”
On top of cheapening the Jamaican product, alleged oversights in construction quality and the lack for respect of Jamaican locals and the Jamaican government are getting some residents and officials up in arms.
Read the whole article here.
