TravelMole’s Graham McKenzie makes headlines at Jamaica conference

TravelMole managing director Graham McKenzie has hit the headlines in Jamaica after he criticised the use of mass-produced plastic promotional items by the organisers of a conference on the island.

McKenzie said the UNWTO 2nd Global Conference on Jobs and Inclusive Growth should have ensured promotional items were made in the host country by local entrepreneurs instead of being shipped in from China.

He also criticised the fact the items were made of plastic, particularly as Jamaica recently announced it is cutting down on its use.

The conference, organised by the Ministry of Tourism, took place at the Montego Bay Convention Centre last week.

McKenzie said: "The actual bag was made in China, and when you looked inside, there was a plastic water bottle – which was strange for a start – and that plastic bottle, made in China, was inside what looked like a thin single-use plastic bag."

McKenzie said the conference bag ‘was no different to any other bag that is given at any other conference in the world’.

He added: "This conference was about supporting SMEs (small and medium enterprises) within the tourism industry and within the economy in general throughout the Caribbean, yet here we are at a UNWTO conference in Jamaica and the giveaways were made in China, and I find it very surprising.

"There was nothing different, nothing unique, nothing local, nothing authentic, and it’s produced by a machine in the middle of China."

He said organisers had lost a good opportunity to give business to an SME in Jamaica and described the decision as ‘frankly absurd’.

He also expressed concern about the message given out, in light of Jamaica’s ban on the use of single-use plastic bags as an environmental conservation effort.

"There is no need to put a water bottle in another plastic inside a bag. That’s just useless. Half of them will now be floating in the Caribbean Sea, being eaten by a turtle.

"The reduction of single-use plastics should be something as prominent in an environment such as tourism here in Jamaica, which so much relies on the environment in particular."

His comments were reported in Jamaica’s daily broadsheet newspaper The Gleaner.

When The Gleaner contacted Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett, he said he agreed with McKenzie’s concerns.

"I am telling you, I don’t disagree with him at all. This is one of the reasons we are working so hard on the SMTEs (small and medium tourism enterprises) and creating the linkages," said Bartlett.

"We want more and more locally produced goods to dominate the cultural asset experience of our visitors." 

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