Will Jay Leno’s return kill Conan O’Brien’s The Tonight Show? Leno’s guests: Rihanna, Jay-Z, Kanye West

Marcus and Shona confess: “We haven’t watched The Tonight Show since the second night Conan O’Brien took over.”

Ok, there are probably many folks who love O’Brien and good for them, but Marcus and I haven’t fired up the satellite for NBC’s The Tonight Show in two months. Instead, we’ve been getting to sleep a little earlier – or not! 😉

But everything changes for us and for Conan O’Brien on September 14th when The Jay Leno Show hits television at 10pm. Now we can have our Jay Leno and we don’t have to stay up late to watch him. How many folks were like us and enjoyed Leno so much they stayed up late to watch him? According to Wikipedia (I know, I know! You can’t trust Wiki but here it is.) O’Brien is attracting two million fewer viewer per night than Leno’s average, so I guess we and a few other viewers were more loyal to Leno than to the show.

Jay Leno’s new show will attract millions of his old fans and that could be bad for Conan O’Brien’s The Tonight Show as people discover that they don’t have to stay up half the night to enjoy television.

Opening Night on The Jay Leno Show

Rihanna, Jay-Z, Kanye West to appear on The Jay Leno Show

Rihanna, Jay-Z and Kanye West will sing on opening night of the first Jay Leno Show. For Rihanna this will be her first major appearance since that nasty incident of domestic violence by… what was that guy’s name again?

We’d be watching Jay Leno anyways, but with Rihanna and her friends… that’s a treat!

See you on September 14th.

People Magazine: Rihanna, Jay-Z, Kanye West to Help Launch New Jay Leno Show

post by Shona, edit by Clive

Panama’s Tourism Arrivals Doubled In Five Years, Solomon Islands Up 8% Over Last Year – What About Barbados?

Fired BTA Member asked inconvenient questiions

A few days ago our resident hotel owner, tourism guru and recently-fired Barbados Tourism Authority member Adrian Loveridge said “I hope we have a plan“ and pointed out that visitor arrivals from the USA to Barbados have been flat for the last seven years.

He also asked about the wisdom of continuing to spend gobs of money on a market that isn’t responding. To Adrian, these flat American arrival statistics over a seven year period indicate that some changes should be made in the way Barbados is approaching the US market, and/or in the portion of our tourism budget allocated to that market.

Adrian seems to be concerned that Barbados should monitor spending AND results so we can properly access whether our efforts are producing an acceptable return on investment.

Ha… Foolish man. (said with tongue planted firmly in cheek) 🙂

No wonder the Government of Barbados fired Adrian from the BTA. He always seems to spoil the “everything will be fine” party by asking simple questions and making reasonable observations. Can’t have people doing audits that lead to accountability ’bout hey, doan ya know!

And don’t be asking for any planning either…

Grand Schemes, Not Professional Planning

Tourism Minister Sealy

Barbados politicians are most happy when they announce grand tourism schemes that have nothing to do with reality. Whether it is Tourism-Minister-turned-millionaire Noel Lynch and his imaginary 700 yachts during Cricket World Cup, Prime Minister Owen Arthur announcing that Barbados would see tens of thousands of Indian, Chinese and “stem cell” tourists – or current Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy proclaiming that Barbados will become a medical-tourism destination – our politicians (and our tourism industry) seem to flit from one scheme to another like hummingbirds to flowers.

Meanwhile, the government ignores the basics and fires anyone (like Adrian) who doesn’t want to “move forward” with the latest greatest idea that struck the Tourism Minister as he sat on the toilet. (So help me, I think I’ll just scream the next time I hear another politician say “Move forward” as if uttering that hackneyed phrase is showing actual leadership.)

Anyway, to move forward with this article…

I had Adrian’s latest column in my mind when I came across a few pieces at ETN Global Travel Industry News and learned that Panama has doubled tourism arrivals in the past five years. Ok… I’m interested in how they did it. While Panamanian efforts and strategies may not translate into success in our market, I say that any government capable of doubling arrivals in five years probably has something to teach us.

The same with the Solomon Islands who are up 8% over last year – and this in the middle of a continued financial meltdown.

So have a read of the articles linked below and see what you can glean.

As for me, I suspect that tourism “success” for Barbados has less to do with announcing great schemes than with keeping our island beautiful, safe and friendly. No matter what spin and schemes our advertisers put on Barbados tourism, if our product (our country) doesn’t please visitors and fulfill their expectations more than it has been – this place is going to be in rough shape in a few years.

ETN: Soloman Islands welcomes increase in tourists

ETN: Tourism in Panama is Booming

Latin Business Chronicle: The Truth About Panama’s Tourism