Taino Heritage

I'm a big sports fan, always have been. So you can imagine that I was in heaven this summer when our sprinters and hurdlers dominated the World Athletic Championships. For those of us that keep close tabs on the news, it was great to have something positive and uplifting related to our homeland to focus on.

Whenever our athletes excel there is talk of taking advantage of the positive press to boost tourism. Undoubtedly, good press is better than bad press and might bring Jamaica to the consciousness of people who might have been thinking about a vacation. I think using sports as a way of attracting tourists has its limitations:

• The vast majority of Jamaican tourists come from North America. Jamaicans play sports that North Americans don't really care much about.
  
• The real big money to be made in sports come from television broadcast revenue and not so much from attendance at events.
  
• The best opportunity Jamaica has had at sports tourism was the 2007 Cricket World Cup. That was an unmitigated financial disaster which is still being paid for.

To the extent that sports helps to diversify the tourism product I am all for it. But don't expect it to be a magic elixir. Our athletes have done us proud and we should strengthen our sporting infrastructure to continue to support their success. Success we can enjoy together and be proud of.