Jamaica retains English market, but visitors broke
Published:Friday | June 10, 2011 | 12:00 AM
- Earns J$20b less from UK business
Steven Jackson, Business Reporter
United Kingdom tourists spent J$19.5 billion less in Jamaica last year, or 51 per cent lower than in 2009, amidst the onslaught of the Cameron administration's austerity measures, according to UK Crown statistics analysed by the Financial Gleaner.
Conversely, spend by Jamaican travellers in the UK tripled over the same period to €6 million (J$746 million).
The president of Jamaica's hotel lobby reasoned that the drop in UK spend in Jamaica was probably UK recession-related.
UK travellers spent €149 million in 2010, down from €306 million in 2009 and €165 million in 2008, according to the Quarterly Overseas Travel and Tourism, published by the Office of National Statistics UK.
It meant that the 2010 spend was lower, even discounting the rise in 2009.
"It is likely to be due to the state of the UK economy. A number of travellers would have opted for shorter destinations and persons who would have travelled further would have got cheaper packages," said newly elected president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association, Evelyn Smith, in a Financial Gleaner interview.
The UK is Jamaica's third-largest tourism market, but that territory adopted a raft of austerity measures last year which effectively reduced disposable income.
Smith, who is also general manager at Tensing Pen Resort in Negril, said a number of hotels could have offered 'discounting for the UK market in order to stimulate that market'.
Going forward, she said, challenges to the sector included security, streamlining licences and fees, marketing and premiums related to the insurance of beachfront property.
UK visitors to Jamaica dropped marginally by 0.1 per cent to some 184,400 over the review period. The lack of growth in the UK did not cut total tourism arrivals in 2010, up 2.8 per cent to 2.83 million, according to Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) statistics.
The increase was the result of growth in stopover arrivals as cruise passenger arrivals declined, according to the PIOJ data.
Regarding Jamaican travellers to the UK, the Office of National Statistics UK estimated that 8,000 Jamaicans travelled to that territory in 2010, which was roughly the same in 2009.
Jamaicans visiting the UK spent €6 million on their visit in 2010, up from €2 million in 2009 and €3 million in 2008.
It meant that despite flat travel between the UK and Jamaica spending vacillated heavily.