Like many other families who have visited Treasure Beach, we have been wondering what we can do to help (on top of donations to the relief fund). The cost of repairs is compounded by reduced income, and this will obviously hit everyone in Treasure Beach community to varying degrees for a long while. I guess income will be down over the next 3-12 months unless extra steps are taken.

What do Treasure Beach people think of the idea below?

One way to get tourism income back to normal quickly would be for past Treasure Beach visitors to make a big effort to spread the word NOW about the delights of Treasure Beach and how special the people are, by:

1. Telling friends

2. Posting comments on the bulletin boards at guidebook web sites and internet travel portals.

3. Sending emails to authors of travel guidebooks (altho it may be a year or two before the next edition comes out.

These are some sites that have bulletin boards. You may be aware of others:

www.lonelyplanet.com/ Thorn tree forum

www.frommers.com/community/

www.letsgo.com/forums/

www.roughguides.com/

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g147309-Jamaica-Vacations.html

www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=5

www.seejamaicacheaply.com/

Possible messages to spread:

- How wonderful Treasure Beach is

- Despite the hurricane, places in Treasure Beach have re- opened.

- A few aspects of Treasure Beach will take a while to get back to normal (like the sand on some beaches), but the key attractions of Treasure Beach are unchanged – great weather, laid-back atmosphere, friendly people, boat trips, tasty food, no big resorts.

- Check www.treasurebeach.net for more information.

Robert, I think this is a fantastic idea. I had been meaning to put something like this together, but didn't have time.

One point I'd like to emphasis from your message...let's make sure that we don't oversell what Treasure Beach has to offer right now. If people come expecting everything to be 100% perfect, they'll be disappointed and not come back and worse, tell their friends not to go.

So emphasize the positive but acknowledge the negative as well. Some beaches don't have sand, most have some. There are trees down, but there's also plenty of sunshine and warm weather and friendly people.

So all you visitors to TreasureBeach.Net, Robert has given you a great challenge. Let's see if we can do our part and get the word out and help the residents help themselves by giving them the business needed to keep the paychecks coming.

Robert, thanks a million!

'Guerilla marketing' is currently and has been for some time in play for Treasure Beach on most of the major content and community sites. Overselling expectations should give pause to any hard sell right now -- but given the cycle of passing nature and time, repeat guests and new visitors and the efforts of everyone evidenced in every story told to date -- Winter Season should progress just fine. In fact, many if not most places it's said are already booked strong for the season ahead with no cancellations. If anything, there's a stronger attraction and somehow a palpable bond even with guests who've never been here before. All are eager to come or come back again. This site has done more than a yeoman's job to reinforce what makes tb so special.
Someone here suggested a letter-writing campaign to Oprah -- and the jump to the larger tv medium
would be spot-on the strength of this story.
Perhaps Eric can repeat/headline separately that thread since it's an invaluable one to pursue via e-mail and paper letters. Oprah has magazines as well as tv shows and the tie to the Calabash Literary Festival of tb would also be of strong impact to her...

Dear TBNET
For many years St Elizabeth has been seen as the slow, quiet poor relative to most of the the island, by those who dont know. Those of us that have been exposed to the all the greatness that St Bess has to offer will know that this is not so. Hopefully through this website, people will see the sheer resiliance that the locals have and love that those abroad give yearly and throughout these times. I pray that this will increase awareness and enlighten many to respect and visit our parish. We have taken a double blow but we will bounce back in record time, because of the special community spirit we posess that filters throughout the whole parish. I am born in England, but of St Bess herritage and would like to say, I am very proud of my parish and made it my duty to help. I urge all those abroad to help as much as you can and all back home never to give up, continue all the good you do......
Big up to all my friends and family in Round Hill, Flagaman, Crossrads, Southfield and throughout Treasure Beach.

P.S. How is Duggie fr Jakes..Tell him his friend and regular visitor Nikki in London says hi, you Jason and the staff keep your heads and the great work up.

Much Love
Nikki

Like I said in a previous message a week ago that was never posted:
We must stay loyal to Treasure Beach. The things I go there for are still there. The water, sun, and most of all, the people!

Here's the link to the Oprah message mentioned above:
http://treasurebeach.net/cgi-bin/discus/show.pl?tpc=1584&post=9180#POST9180

Ken:

Apologies for any messages that got 'lost in Cyberspace'. See this thread for some explanation:
http://treasurebeach.net/cgi-bin/discus/show.pl?tpc=1584&post=9242#POST9242

Hi
Just to let everyone know who is based in England and wishes to travel to Jamaica before June 15 2005,Air Jamaica flights are £345 plus taxes from London or Manchester to Kingston but you have to be quick.This offer finishes on 28 September and is valid at all times aprt from Christmas and New Year.Let's hope more visitors will be encouraged by this.I certainly spread the word in leafy Cheshire...my customers think I'm obsessed!!!
Love Barbara x

LONG TERM ASSISTANCE???????? This is a good point raised

On the question of long term relief, CHILD ORGANIZATION (established in 1994) will continue to solicit donations and assist where needed. Although our first priority has always been to assist familes with children, we are now assisting with just about anything--whatever the need.

Also, I'd like to personally assist the women's group in Treasure Beach. How? I'd like to ask the women if they are willing to obtain copies of my books, sell them, and keep 100% profit. I'll get the publishing house/s to ship the books (no charge to the women)

How is the letter campaign to Oprah going? I'd love to help. I will gladly send a letter to Oprah for Treasure Beach.

In line with the suggestion at the top of this topic, I have given Treasure Beach a gentle promo in bulletin boards on a few travel web sites.

I am happy to help Treasure Beach recover by spending some time telling other people what a great place it is (without raising false expectations or pretending it suits everyone).

The most relevant sites seem to be:
www.lonelyplanet.com/
www.letsgo.com/forums/
www.roughguides.com/

The bulletin boards have a fairly quick turnover of topics, so other people may wish to help by publicising their experience of Treasure Beach and referring people to www.treasurebeach.net for information and inspiration.