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Tony Abrahams began his career in tourism in the 1960's as Administrative Assistant to the then Director of Tourism, John Pringle. In 1980 he became Minister of Tourism when the JLP won the elections. His career began under the Late Robert Lightbourne and spans a quarter of a century to the time of Edward Seaga. To hear him talk about it all is to relive the history of tourism in Jamaica since independence.
There had been a Tourist Board in existence in the 1950's led by Abe Issa, known as "Mr. Jamaica" for his great contribution to tourism. That Board had been perceived by some people as a conglomeration of interested parties as most of the members represented hotel or other sector interests. The Issa Board was large in number, between fifteen and seventeen members.
When Robert Lightbourne took over in 1962, the Board that was created was perhaps rather a backlash to the Issa Board in that it was to be lean and mean with no more than five members. The philosophy behind this was that no-one with private business interests in the sector would serve on it. This meant that members would be able to regulate taxi drivers, in-bond shops, misleading advertising and could monitor the sector without vested interests being involved.
In later days there was criticism of this composition on the grounds that the Board lacked people from the industry therefore the members could not know what they were about! Critics felt that it needed members who were part of the industry. According to Tony, the composition of Tourist Boards has swung between these two philosophies over the years.
John Pringle's appointment as Director of Tourism had its share of drama too. He had just sold out his hotel interests in the Island and had moved to Switzerland. He had been a member of the Legislative Council appointed by Norman Manley and had campaigned against the JLP in the elections of 1962. Lightbourne had it in mind to appoint another hotelier of good disposition to the JLP to the post of Director of Tourism but the Hotel Association persuaded him that though his choice was one of their own, he really was a salesman and that John Pringle would bring...