That column got a lot of reactions and I am reprinting one, of a reader and a hotel executive: We are paying for our mistakes – exorbitant rates, poor service, average accommodations, shabby public facilities, flea markets everywhere combined with a strong belief that we are the greatest, all contribute to the challenge. People find alternatives or the alternatives are created by the people…We keep reading of record arrivals, of being the best and the greatest, but never asked ourselves what our weakness is, until record warm temperatures hit the snowbird countries and now that “e baka a hoga” we rush to fix the mess we created….We rush to explore markets that we neglected to look at for years – P.S. Mexico is not the solution, they have Cancun and the Riviera Maya and they are not coming here, the flights would be too expensive — we will need to find airlift to bring these newly “sold” visitors in, BECAUSE the AIRBNB/HOMEAWAY guests, are occupying most of the current available seats. Overall, we need to renovate and resurface and remodel our dilapidated tourism structures and corridors. In the process we could perhaps do a cleanup of the island and impose fines for illegal dumping, and the mistreatment of animals…. and ban all these street vendors who forcing the nice stores to close down for lack of business. An avalanche of issues will need to be addressed, and it should ALL be done now, to fix our current crisis — la problema, ain’t going away, unless you take corrective steps, and it will take a while to fix, renovate, overhaul, retrain and restrain all partners, in time to welcome a fresh batch of visitors to “New & Improved One Happy Island.”
