Reversing Visitor Harassment Through Deliberate Intelligence Building Strategies

Abstract

The goal of the article was to use learning theories to highlight strategies likely to have a significant positive impact on small independent traders' long-term acquisition of nonaggressive selling behaviors. The work of approximately 300 learning scholars was reviewed. The results of an observational study on Jamaican craft markets were also reported. It was hypothesized that for small traders to acquire nonaggressive selling behaviors, over the long term, they must have significant intelligence in both effective microtrade and self-management and such intelligence can be effectively built through the use of special instructional methodologies like cooperative learning, dialoging, and critiquing. Also, their acquisition of critical knowledge on microtrade would likely improve if they are provided with trading spaces that are open, comfortable, safe, and busy, as well as with a knowledge repository that collects and disseminates the latest information on microtrade from and to their communities, respectively. The article has implications for both how governments and their affiliates manage small traders' learning at tourist destinations and the direction of future visitor harassment research.