Nearly all resort destinations go through it. Some rather seamlessly.... and some rather painfully. Roatan is turning out more and more like the later. With growth in the tourism investment sector comes social and economical repercussions. For instance, more construction = more jobs. More jobs = more people looking for jobs. More people = more infrastructure needed (roads, power, water, waste management).
The economic repercussions we're dealing with on Roatan these days amount to simple issues that a "proactive, tourism savy" government could easily find solutions for. Unfortunately for Roatan's business people, pretty much all levels of government have just not been able to keep up with the changes occurring due to increased development here in the Bay Islands. These simple issues like the availability of potable drinking water, delinquency, increasing power consumption/demands, immigration of unskilled/uneducated workers, over-population of barrios, un-enforced education laws, juvenile offenders are being replaced with topics like "more hotel rooms needed" , more tours for the cruise ships, bigger busses for transportation, more planes from the USA please.
It seems that Roatan has historically chosen to sweep it's social issues under the carpet and instead focus on bringing in more cruise ships. The new Mahogany Bay (Carnival Cruise Lines) $30M port, for example, is well under construction using imported workers from Guatemala we're told. The man behind this? The Honorable Jerry Hynds, Congressman to the Bay Islands. Why doesn't his project use the local work force instead of importing workers from neighboring countries? Can you blame the Roatanians for opposing this type of development? There has been no control over migration of workers and their families coming to the island from mainland Honduras over the past few years and now we are faced with an overwhelming number of unskilled workers looking for employment here.
Our focus must be educating the work force right now! so that they'll be ready to work in these new ventures, hotels, ports being built. We need to ensure that the labour force is "tourism trained" and that our islands are safe and secure for visitors. Who said, "build it and they will come"?
Belize went through it in the 80's. Jamaica, Hawaii, the Bahamas have also gone through similar struggles... it's part of development, I'm told. Most places hide the social issues development brings with "band-aids" for as long as they can, until something brings change... some element of disaster or economic downturn sends the powers that be searching for quick term solutions that work. Roatan is almost there. We are so close. We CAN be a tourist destination to be reckoned with. But it's time for major reforms in our government... both local and in the Capital. With this being an election year, we're hoping for big things!!