Comparing Jamaica to Singapore

This post was sparked by a Facebook friend posting a link to mapfight, a website that compares counties by their geographical size. I spent a few minutes idling around comparing Jamaica to a variety of countries such Japan, Zimbabwe, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands etc. Then came the bomb when I compared the size of Jamaica to Singapore which states that Jamaica is 15x bigger than Singapore. While I knew little about Singapore as a country I knew that they were an affluent country with strong economy that was lead by Lee Kuan Yew (I had to Google his name) for many decades.

Lee Kuan Yew

I remember learning that Mr Yew had used Jamaica as an economic model in the 1950’s and 60’s to plot out a path for his own country. Fast forward 50+ years and Jamaica and Singapore are in very different places economically. I did some searching and came upon the website nationmaster that compares countries on far more than just the size of their landmass. I’m no economist neither will I dive into the politics of it all but there is a story being told in the numbers. Continue reading

Jamaica not just sea and sand: Airbnb x Trench Town

I don’t profess to be a Tourism expert but it doesn’t take an Economics degree to deduce that $100 spent by a tourist with a family in an inner-city community will have a far greater effect than $100 spent at a foreign-owned resort. As an IT professional I am fascinated with how technology changes various industries and the interested was captured by the latest discussion involving Airbnb and how it is through a wrench into the established tourism industry.

AirBnB

Trench Town on Top

Jamaica’s tourism authorities recently signed a memorandum of understanding with online travel marketplace Airbnb. Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett says the majority of the 1,200 accommodations in Jamaica registered under Airbnb are from Trench Town and other inner-city communities. Apparently many are not happy/supportive of this development and there lies my issue. Continue reading