Been clicking around the net. There were 2 million tourist visitors per year, and I conservatively estimated each one spends an average of $1,000. So why can't we have ambulence services in Negril?
Where does all the money go? Certainly not on social services for the poor, right? If it did, they wouldn't have to beg so much.
I would like to know as well.
Probably making the rich richerOriginally Posted by gerryg123
Good question Gerryg123!!! Contact the Minister of Tourism and Entertainment Kenneth Wykeham McNeill, MD, MP and ask him then let us know what his response is. He is also the Member of Parliament for Western Westmoreland, Jamaica which is part of Negril.
wykeham.mcneill@mot.gov.jm
https://www.facebook.com/WykehamMcNeill
http://www.mot.gov.jm/contact/Contac...20of%20Tourism
The heading on the letter should read as follows, The Honourable Dr. Kenneth Wykeham McNeill, MD, MP. Yes, Honourable-that's how they spell it.
Last edited by sandy-girl; 02-15-2014 at 07:12 PM.
There are about 3,000,000 Jamaicans on the island. If every single penny of what those 2 million visitors spend went directly to the people that would be a whopping us$667 per Jamaican per year. And that is if it was given directly to the people and not one dollar spent at the hotel, bars, restaurants or stores. And please note that out of the 2 million visitors to Jamaica last year, about 500,000 came to Negril.
Getting back to economic facts, there is this thing called "cost of goods sold" and "cost of services provided" that have to be taken into account. First, you land at the airport and there are certain maintenance and upgrade costs associated with that operation which comes out of that us$1000 that each visitor spends and are not part of the fees paid on the airline ticket itself.
Then you arrive in Negril using the highway which also has maintenance and upgrade costs that must come out of that same us$1000 per person.
Then you have the hotel which has staff, electricity, water, phone and other operating, maintenance and upgrade costs directly associated with its remaining open that comes out of that same us$1000.
Bars and restaurants have employee and inventory costs as well as maintenance and upgrades associated with their operation, and that must be covered by that same us$1000 per person.
As you can see, at this point that us$1000 is being spread pretty thin and the way the government collects its money is by this thing called "taxes". The GCT you pay is one of those taxes, as well as the us$1 per night per room tax that was added last year.
So out of that us$1000 per person from those 2 million visitors, the government GCT collects about 333 million or about us$110 per year per Jamaican resident. There are other business and employee taxes, which vary on the kind of business and the amount they earn in profit. There is also the TEF taxes so lets estimate on the high side and take that to 1.5 billion us dollars or us$500 per Jamaican resident per year.
Out of us$500 per person comes the airport and road work already mentioned - along with all the other infrastructure necessary to make a country operate. And this includes every square inch of Jamaica, not just the tourist areas. There are hospitals, schools, government offices, government workers, medical services including the universal health care, etc that all need to be paid out of that us$500 per Jamaican resident.
Two years ago a new state of the art ambulance along with trained EMTs were made available in Negril. That came out of that money that the government made in taxes. And last year the sidewalk project was started in Negril to make the walking safer. That has also come out of the taxes that the government has collected.
So last year the Jamaican government earned approximately us$500 per resident and had to pay out for all the costs mentioned above. How much do you think is left over per person, if any, once all those expenses have been covered?
Tourism makes up about 5% of Jamaica's GDP (gross domestic product) with the service industry making up 60% according to the Index Mundi 2013 Economic Profile:
http://www.indexmundi.com/jamaica/economy_profile.html
Negril.com - For the vacation that never ends!
By the way, I did estimate that on the very high side, out of the us$2 billion that Gerry estimated, the actual taxes would be well under a billion, let alone 1.5 - but even at the high estimates it shows how little we are talking about per Jamaican resident.
Negril.com - For the vacation that never ends!
Speaking of the sidewalk......are they ever going to finish it?????
I would imagine they would finish. The budget is there. They were stopped prematurely last year in October to make them more "aesthetically pleasing" by adding the bricks lining the walkway.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/weste...ENDED_15224030
The stoppage and the new work obviously put the plans behind schedule and they will continue once high season is over.
And then the plans have the West End to be done next.
Negril.com - For the vacation that never ends!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica
"An estimated 1.3 million foreign tourists visit Jamaica every year" would mean the 2 million tourists coming each year would be incorrect.
Also at $1,000 per person being spent, that's hardly life changing when it comes to infrastructure.
Like Rob said, there is a LOT of overhead when it comes to a country, not to mention that the 1.3 million tourists is for ALL of Jamaica, not just Negril.
Just curious gerry, where are you getting your numbers from? If each person is only spending $1,000 including hotel/airfare almost none of it is actually being spent in Jamaica.
Jamaica by a lot of standards is still considered a VERY poor country even when you account for Tourism based on the number of people living in Jamaica.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...%29_per_capita
To put 2 million visitors into perspective, look at the World Tourism Rankings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Tourism_rankings
Being in the retail business this thread reminds me of people that complain about the price of a $2.95 birthday card and then complain that it's $3.13 with tax(6% in MD).
A $2.95 card costs me $1.475+SHIPPING,my overhead is massive, and the number of people buying cards is on a decline.
The odds of me breaking even or making a small profit are extremely slim to none, and most customers buy their card and go on their way. But then there is always one or two guys that need me to explain to them why a card is $2.95 and why I'll probably never see a dime of that.
Money is a fickle thing, the more money that is pumped into a system doesn't translate into better services, heck if you look at the Olympics they're spending over $50 BILLION dollars on the event and they couldn't even be prepared for a one off event with hotels half finished, plumbing that doesn't work, and massive corruption at every level.
http://xkcd.com/980/huge/#x=-6432&y=-6880&z=2
If you're interested at a look of money based on scale, an interesting fact is that most people aren't capable of processing a billion dollars or a trillion dollars in their brain other than as an abstract concept.
Blake...Gerry was referring to the 2mill visitors in 2013...first time Jamaica went over the 2mill mark.
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