Carnival in Rio: 90,000 tickets sold and no signs from the Metro to the Sambadromo?
I’ve been ranting for years about the lack of signage on Caribbean Islands to help tourists.
I can understand this on many small islands. Locals are so used to the roads and know exactly where to go, that they can’t seem to appreciate that tourists get completely lost and confused trying to find their way around.
It took me over an hour to find Mahogany Run Golf Course on St. Thomas. I had given up and decided to head back to my hotel when I just happened to stumble on it by accident (our host explained that everyone has that problem and that we did pretty well considering…).
On St. Croix, it took over an hour to find our hotel since the one sign was now blocked by a tree (our hotel explained ‘everyone has that problem’).
In Puerto Rico, they advertise ‘Explore beyond the Shore’ – so I decided to take the ‘Ruta Panoramica’ across the central mountain range. Starting in Mayaguez, I couldn’t find any signs – so I used by boy scout skills reading a map, only to find myself right back where I started after an hour. Since I was traveling with a Puerto Rican, he started to stop and ask locals – this got us even more lost until we found someone who told us the ‘trick’. Since the signs had been placed for tourists traveling from San Juan heading west – anyone (like us) traveling in the opposite direction had to guess which fork in a road to take… and then look backward to see if there was a sign pointing in the opposite direction. This worked pretty well, turning back when no signs were found… until no corners had any signs at all… We finally took a wrong turn and ended back on the North Coast without seeing too much of the Ruta Panoramica – at which point we just went back to San Juan.
Well, the problem isn’t just in the Caribbean. I just got back from Carnival in Rio where the high point was the Carnival parade at the Sambadrome. Although it was easy to get to the ‘Central Station’ metro stop – it took us another hour to figure out how to enter the Sambadromo. No signs at all in a bad section of Rio. We followed the crowds, but they were going to the entrance for members of the Samba Clubs who would perform (very interesting, but nowhere near the public entrance to the stadium). We could see the Sambadromo – but couldn’t figure out how to enter. We crossed the highway which was exciting amidst the speeding taxis – but ended up at a 10 foot chain link fence. We finally asked about 10 different people and got to an entrance after crossing the expressway a few more times. What we didn’t know was that there was a set of broken stairs that went ‘under the expressway’ and through a dark tunnel to get to the main entrance. No signs at all. We got lost again on the way back, but decided to hop in a cab since it was 5:30am.
When will destinations figure out that tourists need directions. Signs are cheap and help tourists find their way around so that they can spend money. We know from years of experience that confused tourists ‘go away’ or retreat to their hotels or resorts. This may be exactly what some resorts want, but doesn’t encourage local tourism or stimulating the larger local economy.
Want to stimulate you local economy? Want to increase tourist satisfaction? Want to integrate local culture and tourism? Try to see your own destination through the eyes of a confused tourist… or better yet, just in the back seat of a new visitor and just watch them get lost (make sure you resist the ‘just turn at the big rock next to the mango tree’ instructions.
With so many departments of tourism spending millions on advertising to attract new visitors – please consider spending just a fraction of this on some decent signs to help them get around and spend their money once they arrive.