28925: Morse (add) Tourism Labrom/Benson (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

 oloffsonram@aol.com


I've been in the "hotel" business for about 19 years. The only hotels that 
function semi normally in Haiti are the ones that get UN or OAS contracts for 
whatever reason. The potential quality of Haitian staff is limitless.

It's not finacially worth it to give special training when you're going to be 
"red zoned" for undertermined periods of time or the international community 
decides they're going to stay else where.  Sometimes you don't know if there's 
a civil war around the corner.

A Haitian student isn't going to spend $40,000 for a year at Cornell and then 
come to Haiti to make three or four dollars a day, or even 10 dollars a day.

I don't have particular problems with service in Haiti. Sometimes it's a bit 
slower and sometimes a bit faster, but when you consider, blackouts, 
insecurity, days or weeks without guests, no particular "busy" season or 
tourist season, sometimes it's amazing that the staff even gets to work, let 
alone quick reliable service. Its also amazing that hotels manage to stay open. 
Employees are afraid to go home after 10pm.

 Hotel owners in Jacmel have to shop in Port-au-Prince. They don't know when 
they're going to have guests, or electricity. They don't know when the 
Carrefour Rd or Martissant is  going to be closed down for rioting or rain. You 
can't get generator parts in Jacmel or pump parts. I have to get hotel and 
restaurant equipment in Miami. This August you can't get a flight to Miami. The 
bridge through Grand Guave has been down for over a year.

Most of the problems in Haiti aren't coming from the bottom (staff). Most of 
the problems are coming from the top. Infrastructure, buying, electricity, 
replacing equipment and products. The so called "educated" folks who can't run 
a government or get me products at competitve, non monopolistic rates. People 
who sell equipment but don't have replacement parts.  Look how quickly phone 
rates came down as soon as DIGICEL came into the picture.

I've gone weeks without phones at the reception desk. Thats not the fault of my 
staff. Thats politics.

If hotels in Haiti start getting a steady stream of guests, there might be some 
gliches at first, but it will soon all iron out.

If hotels start making money, people will reinvest and upgrade their properties 
and even get new properties.

I don't think the first wave of Haitian tourist is going to think they're going 
to get treated like tourists in Hawaii or RIO.

What happens when you have a show and the police disrupt your show. There is 
absolutely no course of action to take.

Security, stability and de-monopolize the ports and the economy. Tailor the 
tourists in the direction of Haitian culture. Don't try and imitate other 
destinations. Haiti is unique.
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