UNIVERSITY REPORT

UCC Report

The Good Samaritan's Inn Project

There are some 650 adults and 800 children living in Jamaica without a permanent place of residence. The Good Samaritan's Inn (GSI), a community outreach centre, caters to the needs of approximately 300 homeless and needy persons in Kingston.

Winston Adams, president of the University College of the Caribbean (UCC), established a relationship with the GSI in February. Adams recalls that "after only the first day of donning aprons, gloves and caps to share and serve the meals to the vocally appreciative beneficiaries, every single staff member present was immediately emotionally committed to continuing and doing more".

He added: "We decided on the spot to make this an every-other Tuesday engagement."

This is in addition to the weekly Sunday and Wednesday initiatives provided by the GSI.

Conroy Sangster, a chef in the UCC cafeteria, with the support of Nadine Honnigan and Tanisha Fraser, invest their personal time to prepare approximately 225 meals and have the food ready for delivery. The menu, which may include chicken or red peas soup, served with crackers; and stewed peas served with rice, is taken to the GSI location at Geffard Place (between Orange Street and National Heroes' Circle) by Barrington Lewis or other members of the UCC staff. Persons from various departments of the university volunteer personal time to serve the meals.

The UCC is invested in strengthening this partnership and will be providing office furniture to the GSI and there are further plans to engage UCC students as volunteers. For further information or to make a contribution to the Good Samaritan's Inn, call 924-1061 or email eastcon@cwjamaica.com.

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UWI Notebook

Lecturers examine role of all-inclusives in Jamaica

A considerable body of valuable information on all-inclusive hotels is now available for governments, investors and policymakers to help them make decisions on issues affecting this important area of tourism development in Jamaica. The information is based on research conducted by UWI academics Dr Anne Crick, senior lecturer in the Department of Management Studies, and Archibald Campbell, the university bursar.

Jamaica's first all-inclusive opened its doors in the 1970s during a challenging social and economic climate. The concept drew upon the cruise shipping and 'Club Med' model to create a hotel type that was uniquely Jamaican. The Jamaican all-inclusive concept could be credited with ensuring the survival of the Jamaican tourist industry during the 1970s and in turbulent times since then. World-famous Jamaican brands such as Sandals and Superclubs have won numerous travel industry awards for quality. Currently, more than 70 per cent of Jamaica's hotel rooms are all-inclusive and the majority of planned developments will also be all-inclusive.

Despite their undeniable success, Jamaican all-inclusives have received very little academic study. No attention has been paid, for example, to the differences between all-inclusives and to which all-inclusive types are likely to be most beneficial to the country and why.

Dr Crick analyzed the Jamaican all-inclusives in a paper entitled 'New Hotels and New Paradigms: The sustainability of Jamaica's all-inclusive product'.

She determined that there were four distinct phases. The first phase was when the all-inclusive was introduced to Jamaica and management creativity and innovation was needed not only to develop the product but also to sell it to a market that was relatively hostile to Jamaica. Phase two in the late 1980s and 1990s saw the consolidation of the early all-inclusive successes that used competition to enhance service and product offerings. The third phase of all-inclusives began in the 1990s and continued through to the early 2000s and saw the diversification of the market as hotel companies sought to defend market share against new entrants and, at the same time, exploit new opportunities. In the fourth phase, 'Spanish hotels' have changed the landscape by introducing megaresorts which can compete on price and have the advantage of newness of product.

Crick's analysis shows that this has had the benefit of moving some all-inclusives up market but has the potential to threaten the existence of others. She indicates that the answer may not lie in decreasing prices but in using the creativity and innovativeness that had characterised the phase one all-inclusives.

In a paper titled 'McDonaldisation, Mass Customerisation and Customisation: An Analysis of Jamaica's all-inclusive Hotel Sector', Dr Crick and Campbell develop a typology of three different all-inclusive types and review the implications of each. In the paper, they discussed the 'McDonaldised' hotel, with the features described by Gorge Ritzer: standardisation, predictability, quantity and control, and appeal to a more cost-conscious segment of the market.

Mass customised hotels attempt to efficiently serve customers uniquely by anticipating their preferences and packaging them in a way that is likely to meet their needs. They meet the needs of customers who do not wish for the constraints of a 'MacDonaldised' hotel but are still limited in their budget. The customised hotel removes restrictions and treats each customer as a unit of one and caters to the highest end of the market. Dr Crick and Campbell point out the advantages of each hotel type to customers, hoteliers and the country, and highlight some of the challenges and limitations of each type, particularly when it comes to satisfaction with the level of service and product quality.

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UTech Focus

School of Entrepreneurship to stimulate economic growth

The University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) in responding to the urgent need to stimulate growth in the economy, on Tuesday, June 15, launched the Caribbean's first School of Entrepreneurship, adding a new dimension to the academic training programmes in its Faculty of Business and Management. The School of Entrepreneurship is housed in the university's Technology Innovation Centre which was established in 2002 to provide incubation support services for start-up micro, small and medium enterprises.

Upon graduation, students will be well prepared to start their own enterprises to create employment for themselves and to contribute to the economic development of the country.

The dean, Prof Gavin Chen in his remarks, lamented the high failure rate of new businesses. It is estimated that 75-80 per cent of new businesses fail within their first three years of start-up. He argued that it is the positive volatility of the start-up and closures of businesses, however, that ultimately drive economic development. Prof Chen emphasised, therefore, that to develop our country we must invest in small businesses. He noted that the School of Entrepreneurship will stimulate the entrepreneurial process and minimise failure of businesses by inculcating entrepreneurs with the appropriate mechanisms and tools for success.

For further information, contact the School of Entrepreneurship at 512-2502 or pfarquharson@utech.edu.jm.