Visitjamaica.com -the new Jamaica Tourist Board website was launched on September 4th. I like the design, the concept and the music of course. I heard it was done at a cost of US$230,000 / JA$16.1 million website, that’s fine too, the only question I have is… how much of that money was spent locally, because the design and programming talent exists in Jamaica big time!
the new site does not seem as elegant or as functional as the previous site. It almost looks like wordpress. It seems that most time was spent on the static flash home page.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
all spent abroad i’m sure
nothing new here either .. back in 2002 they actually bought that visitjamaica.com domain name for US$5,000 .. then paid US$592,000 for the design and development of the site … yep .. half million US$ for the site that they had prior to this, so their production costs are actually going down
September 5th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
That’s an appropriate question to ask….. i found that companies like to spend their money abroad with not much support for local companies….. So i too would like to know that question. I would be supprise if that money was spent locally, cause they don’t normally do
September 5th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
I don’t have a problem with companies or government spending money abroad if they selected the developer based on their previous work, liked the proposal and felt that the cost was worth it.
While there may be a limited number of developers who could do a good job, I also select companies based on who they have done work for before and how that panned out. I would hope the government works the same way instead of focusing on national nepotism. If locals want the job, they should be building out their development resumes with international client lists similar to what the big firms in the USA and elsewhere are doing. This is a global village, not an insulated world.
Would I pick a local ad agency or the agency that did the iPod campaign if I have the budget?
The total cost of this site includes all the backend development and maintenance, not just putting up a frontend and calling it a day.
I also agree with Sandor that this is significantly cheaper than the last one. My sources say that one went to over US$1 million in the end.
September 6th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Many Jamaicans living here in the UK wanting to contribute to the development of JA and having that lasting sense of patriotism, could have given you a better site with greater ease of access for all users; giving consideration to different user groups (access to the various Disabilities for example) and extensive marketing prospects - exploiting e-marketing to its fullness.
US$230,000 is far too much for this site - you guys need to use local talents or shop around a bit more to get best value for money.
Believe me Mr. Smith & Mr. Golding; it is going to take more than a website to resolve the many issues clearly evident in Jamaica including those presented by tourism. I realise that this is not the appropriate forum for my comments but I endeavour to use every avenue to get my message to its intended target.
Mr. Golding, you are called by God to lead a great nation, not just those who voted for you but the entire nation. It is advisable that consultation and transparency in the way you operate as a government is your main stay. Openness and transparency will win you world recognition, respect and financial backing on all fronts.
Sir; please get all the help you can in order to weed out the corruption that is so blatant in the country. This endemic problem will bring the country to it’s ‘knees’ keeping our country eternally impoverished and totally dependent on other nations.
Our forefathers fought hard and long to get us out of slavery, please don’t bring the people back into slavery by simply giving away Jamaica to other nations. I visited and stayed in a few Spanish hotels and they like to give the impression that they own my country.
Corruption will always keep any government trapped and stagnated and finally, your people and the land are your greatest assets – stand up and lead the country. People from the UK would like to invest millions of pounds but they are not going to do that when it is blatantly obvious that the people for whom you and other governments were elected to serve are not being served.
I realise that the money spent on building the site should hopefully boost income from tourism; however, I am nevertheless troubled by the fact that Jamaicans on a whole do not benefit from the proceeds that comes from tourism, only the chosen few.
Having just returned from the island (was there during passing of Gustav), I was very disappointed and horrified to see how hotels had Jamaican cuisine at the bottom of their menus, how the Spaniards treat Jamaican staff worse than ‘dogs’, how foreign produce take pre-eminence over that of Jamaican, the obvious lack of vision, insight, initiative and motivation on the part of those marketing JA, the low morale among hospitality staff who are Jamaicans, the myriads of missed opportunities that would engender growth, employment and prosperity.
Your government need to encourage competition, create incentives for its expatriates and work diligently to reverse the negative mindset of its people. The people are so strongly influenced by the superficiality coming from the States they seem to have lost all sense of their identity.
I trust that the tourist industry in JA now realises that eco tourism is growing in leaps and bounds and bauxite need to quell down its action in the island because it is creating ecological disasters unparalleled by anything I have seen in other third world and developing countries. Jamaica is one of the most beautiful countries and stands to make billions if it is marketed right - please don’t allow bauxite to ruin any more of the land.
I believe the future for my beautiful country is very bright if the present government would establish a programme to get running water and sewage into every home.
Mr. Director of tourism and Mr. Prime minister, I trust you don’t think that I am being disrespectful; I am passionate about Jamaica and desperate to see someone stand up and bring back the national pride and dignity we once possessed. The more positive and professional we present ourselves, the more we will get tourist ‘flocking’ to or shores, the more money we’ll make, to more or economy will grow.
We experienced a taste of such pride when our Olympic team performed well for us in Beijing; it was a wonderful feeling to be party to the elation, flag waving, horn blowing, hugging and laughter that took place during the games. It is events such as these that remind the people that there is still hope even for the poorest man and that poverty and crime does not necessarily go hand in hand.
Sir; I do not wished to be part of any political party, however, I am quite happy to assist in looking at innovative ways of bringing my country into the 21st Century thus enabling it to compete with the best in the world.
Jamaica have huge potentials – please allow others to help you see those potentials and let us set goals to be the greatest country in the Caribbean.
Finally, please stop thinking monopoly and start thinking about the country and its people; every one – please!
God Bless
September 14th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I must admit that having reviewed the website a second time it is quite a good site - like most things, it could be improved even more; but no doubt over time it will be once reviewed and updated.
What I am driving at is that the site is only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ in maximising our efforts in the tourist industry. A whole host of other factors and measures need to be considered if we want to increase tourist ten fold to the island. We could begin by informing our fellow compatriots that tourists are invaluable resources to the whole economy and as such, they should be treated with the greatest of courtesy.
There are some very rude people working at the airport to begin with. Let’s give them some training in basic customer care and manners as they are the first welcome visitors to the island experience.
.
September 15th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
McDonald, your second post hit the nail on the head. We can market the hell out of the country but if the actual experience does not match expectations left by the ads, then we risk turning people off for good. I believe we’ve been doing this already.
The words customer service is seen by many of the front line staff as servitude, akin to slavery and therefor the attitude displayed is not appealing.
Regarding your first post, I have nothing to add expect one word…ditto.
September 15th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Hi Jamaicans, where are you? We need to talk. Our country need our positive input. We need the world to realise that Jamaica is bigger that Bob Marley, Ghettos, Reggae music, ‘Dotty Dancing’ and crime.
I know for a fact that we are the funniest, lovliest, kindest, most compassionate and empathetic people in the land. Where murders and thieves come from we don’t know, but they are not proper Jamaicans.
Let’s get talking and let people know how proud we are of an island where you can actually smell and taste the food, where we can pick a variety of fruits from the tree and eat after washing, where the sun the sea and cool breezes create the perfect tropical atmosphere, where your body sweats and rid itself of toxins naturally, where a cold shower feels like heaven, where people still talk and laugh with each other, where daylight looks like day light and the nights are definitely nights (so dark in the country you only hear voices talking in the dark), where one word can be used to explain a whole host of things e.g. wha’ppen means, how are you, how’s you day going or ‘yeh man yu dun know’ can be translated as, I am so glad we are all agreed and we are on the same wave length.
In England we have pasta and potatoes (spuds) as sources of carbohydrates but in JA we have a variety of yams, potatoes, rice, cocoa, dasheen, cassava etc, etc - such variety. The numerous tropical fruits and vegetables are unparalleled anywhere else. God is so gracious, so good to us; we are so blessed.
As a boy, I use to climb from tree to tree in the citrus grove picking and tasting tangerines, mandarins, autiniques, grapefruits and very sweet oranges - wah!! Let’s not talk about mangoes, Guinnep (is this the right spelling? If I have spelt it wrong, it is because when I was a boy, I had no time to spell, just to eat, Sweetsop, Sour sop, Jelly Cocoa nut, Jackfruit, Plums, Apples etc, etc.
My Grandmother & great-grandmother use to tell stories from Africa and ‘DUPPY’ stories from Jamaica and how they overcame poverty. Let’s not forget about Bredda Nancy and Bra Tacoma. They showed me how ancient dances were performed - dance such as the Quadrille is just one. Did you guys realise that dance is a language and each movement is supposed to signify something?
It is not a just series of movements that are arbitrary, but movements that are carefully choreographed to tell a deep and meaningful story - Can you see what I am hitting at? Black people, we are deep, if you don’t believe me, check out our history and how we impact the world with science, medicine, architecture, literature, religion and art. I wished that I had the time to tell how special our black skin is. I can’t believe that some of us are bleaching our beautiful, velvety, smooth, strong, resilient, delicate yet hardy perfumed black skin - not your fault, I should be out there bringing some more awareness about our superb physiology and biochemical make-up.
The way we dance, move, talk are rooted in our rich African culture - do you think I am living in the past here? Well, in a sense, yes, but I don’t mind because it was a time when black people loved each other, a time when every door could be left open in every district, where God was the centre of our focus and our joy, when it was joyous to go to church, where to be married was the preferred choice, where children respected adults in all sectors of the community, when to be a thief was the biggest disgrace on earth, when the people though poor, were resourceful in their effort to till the soil in order to feed their families, where poverty created dreams of escape to a better day but instead of stealing to realise the dream, we worked harder and disciplined our children more.
There is much more to say but I’ll leave it until I see responses.
Respect and love
October 4th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
I suspect this was not just about designing…it had to do gathering content and editing same.
Truthfully though, I don’t think the all the resources needed to bring the site together exists in one place locally and as such the cost and the outsourcing (which the thread starter raised as an issue) were inescapable…
December 13th, 2008 at 2:11 am
The designing, content gathering, editing capabilities do exist in Jamaica. I agree though that whether local or international, just the best talent should work on projects as these.
The fact that they may have looked only outside of Jamaica could be both a function of the lack of marketing on the part of the local service providers or a continuing culture of preferring to work with foreign entities thinking local people can’t hack it.
December 20th, 2008 at 1:06 am
I was a part of a very experienced team that had done a proposal in response to their RFP costing much less. We weren’t even given a second glance. It seem like it made no sense that they even tendered locally for this project. I saw and read the RFP document and of course that talent is present here in Jamaica. Even if the local contractor had gotten the task and outsourced some parts, it would still have been better because at least some of the money would be floating around I our economy. some people thing the more expensive the better.
December 24th, 2008 at 4:58 pm