Tourism matters for Roy Miller

THERE ARE some persons who quietly and effectively perform their duties without fanfare and excitement, confident of their worth and contribution to their community and country.

Roy Miller of the Jamaica Tourist Board is one such person.

In 1980, Roy Miller's prowess in statistics caught the attention of tourism officials, and he was seconded from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture's Co-curriculum Unit to the Planning Unit of the Ministry of Tourism, where, as Senior Research Officer, he was responsible for planning and coordinating market research in the tourist industry.

RiCARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER National Honours recipient Roy Archibald Miller accepts his award from Governor General Sir Howard Cooke on October 17, 2005 at Kings House.

Shortly thereafter, he pursued a certificate course in Tourism Planning at the Carl Duisberg Institute in Munich, Germany. Roy was strategically poised to take over responsibility for the Department in 1988, and since then, has moved through the ranks of Director of Planning, Research and Statistics; Deputy Director of Tourism, Corporate Planning and Research; and since last year, as Head, Corporate Services.

WELL PREPARED

But Roy had been well prepared. He was among the so called, "Independence Batch" of students that entered Mico Teachers' College in 1962. After graduation, he taught Mathematics at the Christiana Secondary School, in the same parish in which he was born at Comfort Hall, Manchester.

However, he wanted to go further academically, and so in 1970 he enrolled at the University of the West Indies, where he copped a first class honours degree in Natural Sciences in 1974. He then did a short stint as a Mathematics teacher at Excelsior High School, Kingston

In 1975, he gained a Commonwealth scholarship to pursue an M.Sc. degree in mathematics at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. On his return to Jamaica in 1977, he became an Education Officer in the Core-curriculum Unit of the Ministry of Education, where he prepared teachers in the teaching of mathematics.

AN 'ECONOMIST'

His quiet disposition belies the phenomenal work of his department, which has benefited from his competence, precision and analytical and presentation skills. When it comes to tourism matters, many of his colleagues in the public and private sectors consider him to be an economist, but Roy would be the first to tell that he has no formal training in the subject of economics.

In fact, Jamaica has developed a reputation internationally for producing high quality, reliable tourism data, which provide a solid base for planning and marketing Jamaica's tourism product. This reputation is a credit to Roy's work and his leadership of the Planning and Research function.

Committed as he is to promoting professionalism and the highest standards in the fields of research and statistics, Roy finds time to participate in various Tourism planning courses. He lectures on a part-time basis at the University of the West Indies in Mathematics and Statistics and has contributed to the Masters in Hospitality and Tourism Management programme that is offered by the Department of Management Studies.

He has been a resource person in many tourism statistics training programmes put on by the Caribbean Tourism Research and Development Centre (now Caribbean Tourism Organisation).

He has been a participant in a USIS International Visitor Programme under the theme ­ Promotion of Economic Growth through Tourism and Entrepreneurial Development in the United States. (1993); and he is a member of the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) ­ an international association based in the United States.

It is no wonder that the country has conferred on him the Order of Distinction, Officer Class, for his 'contribution to the tourist industry'.

Roy Miller is married to Carol, an economist at the Ministry of Agriculture, and they are the parents of one son, Sebastian.