Bartlett reports 1.6% uptick in tourism earnings
Published:Sunday | October 24, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Minster of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said that for the six-month period, January to June, earnings from stopover tourists hit US$1.009 billion, but was only a 2.4 per cent increase on the half-year intake of 2009.
The number of visitors in the segment, however, rose at a faster pace than sector earnings.
Speaking last Thursday at the Jamaica Product Exchange II (JAPEX) conference at Secrets Resort in Montego Bay, Bartlett said that for the first time, tourist arrivals exceeded one million visitors in a six-month period - moving from 971,191 in 2009 to 1,010,869 in 2010 - an increase of 4.1 per cent.
However, for the period, cruise passenger arrivals decreased by 12.1 per cent from 550,924 in 2009 to 484,234.
The earnings for the period from the cruise segment was US$39.6 million, representing a reduction of 17 per cent.
Bartlett confident
Total visitor arrival from January to June was 1.495 million, reflecting a 1.8 per cent decrease over the same period in 2009; while gross foreign exchange earnings rose 1.6 per cent to US$1.05 billion.
Bartlett said, however, that he expected Jamaica to end the financial year with higher tourism growth.
"Despite the continued threats to the industry and fragility of the global recovery currently being experienced, we remain confident that Jamaica will end the year with a modest growth of approximately four per cent," he said.
A June 2010 World Tourism Organisation report estimated that international tourist arrivals for the first six months of this year grew by seven per cent.
"And this trend is expected to continue in the second half of the year, however, at a more moderate rate," Bartlett said.
A key part of Jamaica's strategy to grow arrivals, he told the conference, was to seek additional business from growing markets in Europe and Latin America.
"We are encouraged by the signs of recovery in a number of our source markets in Europe, which include Italy, Portugal and Germany. We will continue to work with our tour operators and travel agents in those markets to boost travel," he said.
Jamaica has also "seen a doubling of the number of buyer delegates from both Latin America and Europe which is encouraging and augurs well for the future," he added.
niche travel
Locally, Jamaica was positioning for new business by diversifying the product and enhancement of the brand with "not just with our music festivals and events, but through niche travel - heritage, cuisine, birdwatching and faith-based tourism".
The presence of Spanish hotels here could gain Jamaica leverage in the Latin American markets.
Additional growth is also being posited on the meetings and convention market.
Bartlett said the Montego Bay Convention Centre project will provide in excess of 50,000 square feet of exhibition space, over 20,000 square feet of banquet facility and more than 11,000 square feet of meeting space.
And, with the addition of 700 rooms in Montego Bay this year alone, the room stock in the Negril to Ocho Rios corridor is now 20,654 rooms, providing the infrastructure necessary to host large-scale events.
"It is our hope that the Montego Bay Convention Centre, which is set to open in time to host Caribbean Marketplace 2011, January 16-18, will significantly boost the island's ability to claim a piece of the estimated US$280 billion worldwide conventions and exhibitions market," the tourism official said.
Challenges to the industry, he said, include the UK's Airport Passenger Duty (APD); the visa requirements by some countries that increase the cost of aviation to travellers; immigration controls; the need for airlift agreements and crime.
JAPEX was created in 1990 as a business exchange where wholesalers and tour operators network with Jamaica's leading tourism suppliers.
In 2009, JAPEX II was launched for wholesalers and tour operators from Latin America and now includes buyers from Eastern Europe.