The Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development in Jamaica

by cengac (student)

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

Module Title:

Sustainable Tourism Planning

Assessment Title:

Coursework Assessment

Topic 1:

The Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development in Jamaica

Course: BSc (Hons) Tourism Management

Student Name: Chan Sze Nga, Celia

Shape student number: 127001766

SHU student number: 91207470

Jamaica is an island which located in the Southwest Caribbean Sea. It is the third large island in the region with incredible scenic beauty and many natural resources. Tourists are attracted to visit not only because of its sunshine and the beaches, but also its rich cultural life. The national motto of this country is “Out of many, one people” (Gritzner, 2004:11). That means there is an ethnic diversity with different popular culture in Jamaica, such as those Jamaicans’ African heritage and British formal behavior. Jamaica has a long history of tourism development like the other countries, and the region as a whole has a huge tourist growth during the 1970s and early 1980s (Trans Africa Forum, 2000). However, the growth decline since 1990s. To reboot and keep the tourism development in a sustainable way, a national master plan was carried out by the Ministry of Tourism and Sport, the former of Ministry of Industry and Tourism, in 2002.

According to the United Nation World Tourism Organization (2011), Tourism development master plan is to formulate a long-term development framework for tourism in ten to twenty years with emphasis on policy and strategy, planning, institutional strengthening, legislation and regulation, product development and diversification, marketing and promotion, tourism infrastructure and superstructure, economic impact of tourism and tourism investment, human resource development, and socio-cultural and environmental impacts of tourism. The Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development in Jamaica is a national plan for Jamaica tourism over ten years from 2000 to 2010. As the master plan aims to move the tourism industry on to a path of sustainability, it created a strategic vision for its growth and development and establishing an enabling environment to help making clear the vision. The master commenced in January 1998, and then the draft of it was prepared and submitted to the Jamaican government in 2000. Once it got handed to the government, the content of the plan was debated and discussed with the Ministry of Tourism and Sport and its agencies and the Jamaican government Industry Advisory Committee. Meanwhile drafting the plan, a process of wide consultation was carried out not only with the direct stakeholders in the tourism industry but also with those communities on the island from December 1998 to June 1999. From September 2000 to March 2002, all stakeholders came out together to make a national consultation on discussing and reviewing the draft master plan. Throughout receiving the feedback from consultation and guidance from the executing program agency, the Ministry of Tourism and Sport, the finalization of the master plan produced in September 2002. There are five objectives in the plan to shift the current unsustainable development to a sustainable one. They are growth based on a sustainable market position, enhancing the visitor experience, community based development, an inclusive industry and environmental sustainability. The implementation of the above themes of the master plan would not only offering diverse range of visitor experiences, but also focusing on the Jamaican people and their heritage. The value of this master plan is to widen the sense of ownership of the industry from large to small business, from non-governmental organizations to local communities who may get benefit in tourism.

There are not one size fits all frameworks for a tourism development to suit all circumstances (Ruhanen and Whitford, 2010). According to Schermerchorn (1996) states that a strategic tourism plan needs to have a comprehensive plan of action that sets critical directions and guides the allocation of resources to achieve long term objectives. For the master plan of Jamaica, the planning process was coordinated by the Ministry of Tourism and Sport under the guidance of two committees. They are the Master Plan Steering Committee which comprised of representatives from various government departments, statutory bodies and tourism industry associations, and the Tourism Industry Advisory Council which comprised primarily of private sector representatives from various tourism sub-sectors as well as government representatives. When the Ministry of Tourism and Sport found out that in the past, there were many tourism plans which fail to build consensus amongst the main stakeholders with specify mechanisms and address the crucial issue of mobilization of resources, it designed a planning process to overcome those failings. At the first stage, it took an account on the strengths and weaknesses of the tourism industry and outlined the strategic options for the industry future direction. This recorded in the document of Diagnostic and Strategic Options. For the second stage, that was the Master Plan. Its main purpose is to detail the actions required to implement the agreed strategy. Same as Meredith (2011) states that “engagement process was used, and the process continued with consultation reports, workshops, draft plans and the communication and implementation of the final plan”, in both stages of the planning process, time and effort were given to collecting comments from all stakeholders and the communities widely. Their comments have been incorporated into the final document. During the planning process, consultation remains an importance. According to the Inskeep’s stages in the tourism plan process, after study preparation and determination of objectives (1994:12), data collection should be done on current and future situations affecting the tourism destination. From the Chapter three to five of the master plan, it set out and discussed the measures required to improve the competiveness and structure of the tourism industry, such as it tourism products, infrastructure, current markets, market trends, tourism impacts. Step four of the Inskeep’s stage is analysis and synthesis. In the master plan, a useful analysis of the carrying capacities of the three resort centers at Montego Bay, Negril and Ocho Rios has been prepared by Desmond Hayle & Associates. The study analyses carrying capacity as a planning decision subject to multiple constraints, especially in the location strategy and resort development. In the master plan, policy and plan formulation made in one direction, but detailed planning local projects may be carried out by using the master plan as a frame of reference. Therefore, an action plan has been carried out with assigned responsible stakeholder, cost and time schedule. A standards department is needed at the last stage of planning process. It should maintain its function of monitoring to identify problems and constraints and propose solutions across all sectors of the industry. The department should act as guide to businesses so that it can source the required expertise within Jamaica and abroad.

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Murphy (1987) stated that Communities are groups of people residing in the same region with common interests and identity. When it comes to the community based development which is one of the objectives of the sustainable master plan, local communities must play a major role in defining, developing and managing the tourism experience. They can take the ownership of the industry and committed to providing the visitor experience on which the success of the industry depends. During the consultation of planning process, public and private sectors are invited. Cooper (1995) reported that “the public sector has traditionally been viewed as responsible for high-order planning, but they also have been found guilty of lacking a strategic view”. The points of view from different background stakeholders can come up with ideas that balance the needs of the large group of people. This made a bottom-up planning. The examples of private sectors are University of the West Indies, Jamaica Adult Literacy and Negril Environment Protection Trust. Besides, the community based tourism, there were some resort development and plan for environmental sustainability which can only be achieved through a partnership between central and local government, public and private sectors and a range of industries. There was collaboration for the resort center development. The rejuvenation of the resort centers brought both public interest and commercial aspects. When it came up with the public interest, the commercial projects need to be undertaken by the public sector planning and supervision. The project may generate a large amount of investment required and ensure the both public and commercial interests are served. This was such a public-private partnership.

In planning the physical location for the Jamaica tourism, planners need to take account into the characteristics of each of the resort zones in terms of tourism assets, current settlement patterns, social conditions and the aspirations of the local people. To reduce the degradation of the environment as well as social deprivation, the location strategy aims to prevent overdeveloping the north and northwest coasts and concentrate the growth of accommodation in three resort centers and Kingston and in four smaller resorts for increasing the carrying capacities. A geographical dispersal of hotel resort to the south coast of Jamaica helps to reduce the pressure towards the environment in the north part and to introduce the visitor to the origin cultural heritage. The target for the south coast is based on the results of the South Coast Sustainable Development Study. That study forcefully argued against the development of any large resort hotels in the area. It argues for low density tourism in small hotels, villas, guest houses and apartments. Similarly, no large resort hotels are recommended for Portland and St Thomas parishes because of ecological concerns. The focus would be on providing an up-market, low density tourism experience based on nature and culture. On the other hand, the carrying capacities of those three resort center in Negril, Montego Bay and Ocho Rios has been exceeded. Concentrating new rooms in the resort centers to maximum the levels with carrying capacities may ensure for accommodating projected visitor number with achieving sustainable development.

Three out of five main themes of the Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development in Jamaica is more likely to promote sustainability. They are the community based development, an inclusive industry and environmental sustainability. Sustainable development means developing that meets the need of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meets their own need (UNCSD, 2001). WTO (2000 cited in Padin, 2012) defined sustainable tourism development as “one that meets the needs of today’s tourists at the same time protecting areas and increasing the chances of sustainability for the future” and argued (2007 cited in Padin, 2012) “sustainability principles refer to the environmental, economic and cultural tourism development, and the absence of a proper balance between these three dimensions will not guarantee its long-term sustainability. A successful sustainable tourism plan should be able to maximize the positive effects and minimize the negative one on tourism. Here the plan had put Jamaica to compares against the best practice of sustainable tourism.

Consultation is strongly emphasized in developing the Master Plan and it shows the need to involve the community is now recognized at a high level in Jamaica. Without the local support, the tourism industry’s growth may be unsustainable. Therefore, community involvement takes part in the master plan, particularly in the Resort Boards where is about the resort development. With more local communities’ involvement, the restructured resort boards got empowered. It charged with defining the visitor experience each parish should offer and prioritizing the development of accommodation, attractions, and facilities, providing advice and guidance to local entrepreneurs on new product development and industry participants on product upgrading, influencing the local planning authority on the needs of the tourism industry, and even educating the wider community on opportunities and benefits from participating in tourism. It has become clear that community organizations often have very clear views of the type of visitor experience the parish should offer. Furthermore, that their knowledge of the variety of natural, cultural and heritage experience each parish could offer is greater than many tourism professionals. Their involvement in tourism planning would not only ensure greater sensitivity to local aspirations but would also enrich the visitor experience. To the visitor interface, there were a lot of crime and harassment against the visitors. The government used the hard way to protect visitor but also keep them away from the local community. It was an unfair way to treat the local who should not be labeled as harmful to visitors. Now, the master plan is more focused on the education with the public, letting the local community know how they can treat the visitor in an effective way that will not be treated as harassment. Ritchie and Crouch (2003:5) believe that social and cultural sustainability and characteristics are critical for creating a destination that people want to visit. More communication they do, the better cultural exchange exists, resulting in greater mutual understanding and respect. As this community based tourism become a best practice in tourism planning, it considers the needs of the place and its resident, local gets involved in decisions, shares influence and power.

In terms of the economic impact, the master plan aims to spread the benefit of tourism all over Jamaica. Tourism should be an inclusive industry to the Jamaican people. It is about considering the distributional outcomes and making the majority believe they are benefit. When tourism expenditure increases, it provides major opportunities for the development of small business in the industry. Local small business may development their business at those attraction sites or small markets where they can easily to reach tourist. Government may provide support and loan finance facilities for the small business. The important objective of all tourism projects should be to increase access to tourism spend for local communities, small business and the informal sector. Improving access to tourism spend would clearly increase the community’s stake in the industry. It could also serve to provide to tourists the greater contact they seek with local people and to enrich the visitor experience. It is important to ensure that all tourism projects in future and particularly plans for the development of the resort centers, provide for opportunities for local people to sell products and produce. They must plan for sites and premises that could be used by vendors and small businesses to sell to the tourist. Jamaica is in the process of establishing support infrastructure for the development of small business, including access to business support services and to loan finance. The tourism industry must play and active role in this process. Another economic aspect is from the agricultural produce sine the tourism industry is a major consumer of food. There were a large number of small farmers in Jamaica which cannot compete with outside large chained farm. However, locally the tourism industry represents a consumer willing to pay a premium for fresh and quality local agricultural product. It would help a significant number of small farmers. Overall, the money flow of tourism should be clearly identified and let the whole local community to understand how they gained benefit from the increasing economic integration.

There are both positive and negative impacts to the Jamaica environmental issue when tourism activities exist. The positive impact is to promote the awareness on the preservation of the local environment as tourism in Jamaica is highly depended on the natural beauty. However, there are also negative impacts, such as solid waste disposal, sewerage and other pollution while the environment is exploited to the visitor. Bucar et al. (2010) said the negative effects of “the reduction of air and water quality and the increase of noise, in charged landscape depend on the number of tourists visiting certain area”. In the tourism prospect, implementing the location strategy is the first and most decisive measure. It is concentrating the tourist accommodation in three resort centers that have infrastructure to cope with higher visitor number with additional investment. The recommendation in location strategy may help in maintaining the local environment. Moreover, there should be no large hotel development take place outside the resort centers, only small scale hotel can be developed in particular area. Usually, the hotels are able to demonstrate excellent environmental management systems. However, in some small communities nearby the resort where hotel workers living in, there is a lack of infrastructure which handling sewerage well. The local households bring up negative impact. This led to an education from local government to help achieving the environmental sustainability.

After six years, Jamaica government made a mid-term review on the key policy of the Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development. There are criticisms from some environmental lobbyists. The policy has failed to promote sustainable tourism development because of its poor implementation and the risk of climate change. Especially, when it comes up to some recommendations are being ignored by the public sectors which responsible for monitoring the investment projects. Large hotel and resort development which was not proposed in the master were made and without social infrastructure. This led to a threat to the environmental sustainability. Hurlock (2008 cited Manning 2008) stated that “we need to look at a change in our strategy of what we are selling out there”. A revision of the master plan may be needed and change the objective of it to developing terrestrial tourism.

In conclusion, the Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism Development in Jamaica which is a tourism plan aimed to change the unsustainable tourism into a sustainable one the past decade. The planning process is very detailed and comprehensive with a long time consultation. Many tourism planning approaches or strategies were made, for instance, the consultation, collaboration and partnerships, planning within carrying capacity and geographical concentration and dispersal. The master plan is made up with the triple bottom line for the sustainable tourism planning, including viable natural environment, sufficient economy and community benefits. Finally, the master plan has been reviewed and found out with problems that not stated in it. It reminds the planner should be take much more effort on it to fine tune the objective and direction of the plan with good measurements within a period of time. If not, the master plan may lose the track and end up as a failure.

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