Government
We Need a Better Reason for giving up the keys; DMMO talks should continue
Editorial
Deandrea Hamilton
#TurksandCaicos, May 1, 2023 – People are still unsure about the Destination Marketing & Management Company, (DMMO) which newly inked bylaws on April 14, pushed further down the road of being fully established in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
It is reasonable that residents and citizens are skeptical about the new engine which will drive tourism management, marketing and development in the islands.
First off, it means change, and the change is dramatic. From many seats in the theatre watching this story play out, there was simply no need for it.
A tweak of the current TCI Tourist Board legislative framework here and a nip and tuck there, and the existing entity could do – to be fair – just what the premier and minister of tourism on Monday April 24 claimed are the stark differences and advantages to the DMMO, as it is called.
The Premier, C. Washington Misick was quizzed about the role of government; he essentially conveyed that elected government is out of the intimate management of this entity. A board will determine the marketing, a board will determine the direction of tourism, a board will hire the staff and a board will spend the money; largely the people’s money.
To this Editor, it is a bit odd that Government, in particular a Progressive National Party led-government would even want to hand over its leading industry to a group, it would legally not be able to control. And here’s but one reason why…
Just now, the Turks and Caicos has managed to claw back some semblance of control when it comes to the issuance of Crown Land. After 11 years of having zero say, now the elected politician, hired by the voters will be able to participate in who gets what and does what when it comes to land and development in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The British, fabulously and appropriately agreed to have us back at the table, where we should be.
So, why this ‘happy’ declaration by the Premier that elected government is handing over its main breadwinner to a
Yes, red flags are waving high even amongst supporters of the Progressive National Party. I am sure this discomfort among the electorate is further aroused by the fact that at this time, TCI is driving a Lamborghini with epic real estate sales, tourism arrivals, government recurrent revenue and touristic development.
Why hand over the keys now? And did we really give you permission to do this?
And though Premier Misick is clinging to the story that the transition to a DMMO was never hidden, that he and his election team penned that this was coming in their Party’s manifesto, in the absence of national debates or any speech ever given pointedly about the design of this change during the 2021 campaign season, it remains unfair to the public to say, ‘but I wrote it down in the book’.
After all, we all know what they say about ideas stuffed into books.
Curious thing is so much about what was presented at the press conference last week seems excellent to implement. However, once again this casual style of sharing information and the utter failure of governments to – time and again – actually be transparent when it comes to involving this highly educated and exposed public at every step of national decision making, is running interference.
The press conference last Monday helped. Sadly though, now it’s time for more as we all savour the morsels thrown out. Now, we want to move from appetizer to soup du jour. All of this, as the Government is already back of house washing the dinner plates on an idea which, as they have touted, will revolutionize the No.1 industry.
While this can go really well and we may all look back at this moment in time and say, ‘Boy Washy really did us justice!’
Isn’t it just wisdom for government to acknowledge, with gravitas, that history dictates that not all revolutions have a happy ending and spend more time convincing the people this DMMO is the ideal move at the ideal time.
Besides, this needs to be an institution which gets greater agreement, especially among our political parties.
The bi-partisan backing of a DMMO is essential to guaranteeing that the voter does not deliver a mandate – through a General Election or otherwise – to de-construct it. Another dismantling would assuredly be costly; an expensive, untenable bill which is never borne by immature politics and politicians, but by the Public, who is too often last to be consulted or utterly ignored.
Spend more time and some money on public education about this very new idea; since it’s our tourism engine which is revving up, we not only have the prerogative, as a people, to choose the road but we can also determine the pace.