Letter from Jamaica Joan ScalesThe air of excitement in Jamaica is palpable. The world cricket championships will take place in the West Indies next March and Jamaica has secured the opening ceremony and 12 matches.
The whole island is caught up in the preparations for thousands of overseas visitors. Ireland will also be fielding a team. Like Jamaica we can share their excitement, as we prepare for the Ryder Cup here this year. The overwhelming value to our countries of both events is the long-term benefit they will bring to our tourism industries. A worldwide television audience is hard to secure and is one that has to be capitalised on.
As we are improving the roads to Straffan and the K Club, so too is Jamaica improving the roads along the north of the island where the new stadium is being built near Montego Bay by a Chinese construction team. It is due to be finished in November and, if the Jamaicans have any sense, they will also get the Chinese to help them finish the roads.
Construction on the scaled back improvement of the road from Montego Bay to Ocho Rios is crawling along. Like many developing nations, funding is always difficult and the original plan for a dual carriageway had to be reduced.
For miles the road has been scraped back to bare muck, and rusty construction equipment struggles to turn it into a serviceable route.
But it is here on this coast that Jamaica needs to improve the infrastructure to cope with the 1.2 million visitors a year. The northern and western coast with resorts at Ocho Rios, Montego Bay and Negril are where most tourists stay.
The target growth this year is 15 per cent and with a huge building programme in full flight this target could be achieved.
Three premier Spanish hotel chains are building at present along this coast, Riu Hotels, Iberostar and Bahia Principe. All are in the four- and five-star categories, and with resorts from 600 to over 1,000 rooms, are expecting to bring a lot of tourists to the tropical paradise that is Jamaica.
Spanish-speaking staff will be readily available as it is the second language taught in Jamaican schools.
Adding to tourism coffers this year will be the world's biggest cruise liner Freedom of the Seas that has committed to a weekly stop in Ocho Rios, disgorging up to 4,000 passengers to shop and climb the Dunn's River Falls.
This year Jamaica elected its first woman prime minister, Portia Simpson-Miller, affectionately known to all as "Sister P". This tactile lady, herself a former minister for tourism, is no stranger to the problems facing tourism having first being elected in 1976. In the 1970s Jamaican tourism was virtually destroyed by the violent gun culture and post independence politics that saw it aligning itself with the socialist path of Cuba. American businesses and tourists fled and the economy went into sharp decline.
Following the election of Edward Seaga and the Jamaica Labour Party winning power in 1980, his shift away from Cuba and back towards the US helped to turn around the economic fortunes. But it has been a hard struggle to win back and increase tourism. As the second biggest industry and major employer, tourism is vital to the Jamaican economy.
The Jamaica Tourist Board works hard to get the message across that tourism is essential to the country.
At times there may be an element of tolerating tourism, but most Jamaicans are more than aware of the value it brings. Tourism frontline staff and government employees who interact with visitors have to take part in a mandatory Team Jamaica tourism awareness programme.
This is a two-week exercise comprising seven modules that include tourism awareness, tourism services/products, work experience, leadership and motivation as well as customer service.
The ministry of industry and tourism has been given the mandate to deliver the Team Jamaica Programme to all employees in the sector, which includes a workforce of 70,000 direct employees. The effect is to create a service orientated workforce who appear happy to meet visitors.
Drugs and drug-related violence see Jamaica with still one of the highest murder rates in the world. Most tourists will never see this side of Jamaica, with many resorts providing all facilities on-site and reducing the need for visitors to leave their holiday community.
Outside the gated resorts, drugs and prostitution are easily available. Prostitution works both ways here and it is not unusual for women to be offered "Jamaican steel".
Jamaica is still a poor and struggling country where the per capita income is less than $4,000 a year. Many people live in sub-standard housing with little or no utilities.
But there is hope, as Norman Manley, first prime minister of Jamaica wrote: "out of the past of fire and suffering and neglect, the human spirit has survived - patient and strong, quick to anger, quick to forgive, lusty and vigorous, but with deep reserves of loyalty, love and a deep capacity for steadiness under stress and for joy in all the things that make life good and blessed".