Tourism Thrives in Jamaica Despite Violence, Officials Say
By Joshua Rhett Miller
Published May 25, 2010 | FOXNews.com

Tourism in Jamaica continues to flourish despite drug-fueled violence that is ravaging the island nation's capital city, officials told FoxNews.com.

John Lynch, director of the Jamaican Tourism Board, said the violence that has left as many as 30 dead in Kingston had "not yet" affected bookings in the country's four main resort areas: Montego Bay, Negril, Ocho Rios and Port Antonio.

"Currently, our hotels are pretty full," Lynch told FoxNews.com from the tourism board's Miami office. "The incidents are happening in and around Kingston. But it's going to affect business if it continues."

Kingston, which is on Jamaica's southeastern coast, is 52 miles and 112 miles away, respectively, from Ocho Rios and Montego Bay, the popular tourist destinations on the country's northern coast.

Lynch said the upcoming Memorial Day weekend had padded already high booking rates in Jamaica, but acknowledged that some offices have been receiving calls since the U.S. Department of State issued a travel alert to Kingston and the surrounding areas on Monday.

"We are getting calls," Lynch said. "Some people are going to cancel, some people are going to book. We're trying to settle it as quickly as possible to get back to our business. Tourism is very important to Jamaica."

Roughly one-quarter of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is generated by tourism, Lynch said, and roughly 1.8 million tourists visited the island last year, two-thirds of whom were from the United States. Jamaica's GDP was $23 billion, according to the CIA World Fact Book.

An official at the U.S. Embassy in Kingston told FoxNews.com that she was not aware of unrest outside of Kingston and its surrounding areas.

"But it's a very, very fluid situation down here and things can change," said the official, who requested anonymity. "Things are pretty dodgy down here in Kingston."

Embassy officials had not received reports as of late Tuesday of increased security at the island's tony resorts.

Meanwhile, cruise giant Carnival has said it plans to continue service to Jamaica as scheduled.

"The disturbances in Jamaica and associated state of emergency are focused in Kingston," the company said in a statement. "Carnival’s ships visit Ocho Rios and Montego Bay, both of which are located on the opposite side of the country and are not experiencing any issues. Visits to these ports currently remain as scheduled. Nonetheless, we are monitoring the situation closely."

No way José. Maybe a "Burn out ex-Russian mercs tour group" will arrange day visits to the battle areas
in Kingston, similar to the one that was organized to kill and/or capture Somalian pirates.

I whole heartedly agree but if I had laughed out loud Dread would have accused me of ' Dancing on the Grave "

you should not predicate your actions upon what i think of you, because, whether you do or not, i know you are enjoying the moment immensely. God has blessed you by giving you an interlude of mirth and levity, wherein you can revel in the death and destruction of people you believe to be just too high spirited and independent for the white man's liking. your disdain for jamaicans is because they do not kowtow to the white man in the fashion you think is appropriate. the only difference between you and cabaretewilliam is that he is an outright racist, who makes no bones about it. you are a little more sophisticated, so, when challenged, you remind that you have black friends. saaadddd.

Black family dread not just black friends

well, it is not healthy to hold your relatives in such disdain, except where warranted. in my case , i have an excuse. i would like to hear yours.

Tourism Sector Set To Take US$350m Loss
Published: Monday | May 31,

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett.
Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett says the country stands to lose US$350 million in earnings because of the unrest in Kingston last week resulting from the attack on the state by criminals seeking to block the arrest of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.

According to Bartlett, approximately 300,000 fewer visitors may come to Jamaica this year.

"We had projected a growth of six per cent this year and we were on track, but this may be affected and right now we need US$10 million to combat the negative effect," he said.

During the unrest, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom issued travel advisories against Kingston, Jamaica.

The tourism minister spoke with The Gleaner during an extraordinary meeting with stakeholders, the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), the National Cruise Council of Jamaica and the New York-based advertising agency FCB yesterday at the Secrets Resort and Spa in Montego Bay.

He said that the plans to combat the challenges were still being fine-tuned.

Unwelcome publicity

The gang war between the police and gunmen in Tivoli Gardens, which left 73 civilians and three security officers dead, made headlines in most of the news media worldwide, sending jitters throughout the travel and tourist industry, on which Jamaica depends.

Although none of the six resort areas were part of the confrontations and are far from the capital city, the entire country got caught up in the unwelcome publicity.

"We are setting up a strategic response team, and our programme will include extensive road activities in all our supplier markets, namely the United States, Canada and the UK," Bartlett said.

He noted that although the fall-off in the resort areas was not significant, the effect on Kingston was horrendous. "Kingston has been the real casualty. The arrivals at Norman Manley International Airport have fallen significantly", he confirmed, adding that the city has experienced a reduction of 43 per cent in overseas-generated business.

The bigger problem for Kingston is the meeting and group activities which were cancelled at the last minute. Sporting events such as the West Indies cricket matches scheduled for Sabina Park in June had to be moved to Trinidad.

"Those matches usually bring good occupancy for the hotels in Kingston," Barrtlett said.

Summer booking concerns

Stakeholders in the metropolis are of the view that it will take up to 18 months to repair their name in the marketplace.

However, the net fall-out for the six resort areas amounts to approximately 2,000 visitors or two per cent of the arrivals during the similar period last year. Throughout the period of the unrest, some 125,000 tourists visited the island, Bartlett said.

Obviously not significantly affected now, the minister is more concerned about forward bookings for the summer months of July and August. "The level of the nervousness in the market could cause people to review their decision," he said.

According to Bartlett, if the situation is not cauterised within the next six months, it could affect the upcoming winter tourist season. To minimise the effect, he said a campaign programme to be developed should help to restore confidence and drive forward bookings.

"We have to continue to show that there are normal and buoyant activities in the resort areas and restore full trust in the destination."

Accordingly, there has been very active collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism and its partners - the JHTA and the National Cruise Council of Jamaica - which Bartlett said are committing resources to the aggressive phased initiative which is to be launched.

- Gleaner Writer, Richard Morais contributed to this story.

Sandals on major Jamaica sales blitz
Monday, May 31, 2010


LAST week's civil unrest in which the security forces repelled a brazen attack on the State by criminal gunmen loyal to Tivoli Gardens 'don' Christopher 'Dudus' Coke has resulted in Jamaica experiencing an estimated 20 per cent drop in tourism sales, hotel mogul Gordon 'Butch' Stewart has said.
But Stewart, chairman of Sandals Resorts International, operators of the Sandals and Beaches chain of all-inclusive hotels, has marshalled his team of sales executives and mandated them to hit the streets of major overseas cities this week in order to reclaim lost visitor traffic to Jamaica.
STEWART... it is now a matter of doing everything to push Jamaica
1/1
"Starting tomorrow, Sandals' sales and marketing team will be hitting the road in Canada, the USA, United Kingdom and continental Europe," Stewart, who is also chairman of this newspaper, said in an interview yesterday.
"It is now a matter of doing everything to push Jamaica," he said.
The tourism fallout follows three days of intense gunbattles between the security forces and gunmen who were intent on preventing Coke's arrest for processing in relation to an extradition request filed by the United States Government.
The clashes occurred in West Kingston, a section of the capital city that is situated more than 100 miles east of the tourist resort city of Montego Bay and just over 50 miles away from Ocho Rios.
But international media coverage of the disturbance, coupled with travel advisories issued by the US, Canadian and UK governments urging caution on visiting Kingston, triggered concern in the travel trade.
Yesterday, Stewart said that while there was a drop in sales, the tourism sector was not seeing "an enormous amount of cancellations".
Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association chairman Wayne Cummings agreed, and attributed that to quick response by the tourism sector to get the word out in the market that the violence was restricted to a section of Kingston.
"There are still people who are anxious but they are less anxious than at the beginning," Cummings said ahead of yesterday's second day of talks between the sector and the Government aimed at devising a strategy to counter the negative publicity.
"The good thing that Jamaica has is that we have a strong base and the travel trade knows us well," said Cummings. "So once we got the information out that Montego Bay and the North Coast were not necessarily impacted, they reassured their passengers to continue to travel."
On Saturday, Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett said that the talks were expected to fashion "a series of strategies to keep the destination in the market and to ensure that the product is minimally affected".
He said that so far, the magnitude of the damage was not yet ascertained, but confirmed that the sector was jolted by a number of cancellations.
"We can't say properly yet how severe the damage is. What we can safely say, however, is there has been some level of cancellations, particularly with groups, but we can't quantify the extent of the damage at this time," Bartlett said.
Both Bartlett and Cummings said that while the cancellations were cause for concern, their greater worry was forward bookings.
"It is the decision to book which is where I think we are taking the greatest beating," said Cummings, who also told the Observer that the sector is preparing to launch a timely public relations campaign.
"We need to determine how much it is going to cost and when is the right time to do it because we can't compete with the negative press," he said.
But Stewart, it emerged, decided to trade blows with the negative images reported in the press by keeping Sandals advertisements on television in Jamaica's major tourism markets.
"There was an argument about getting off TV, but we decided to show the good side while the other side was taking a beating," he said. "Hopefully, as things start settling down we'll get the message out and start getting more visitors into Jamaica."
He said that while the operations of the security forces affected the tourism industry he didn't mind, so long as they deal effectively with the country's crime problem.

If martial law is still in effect by Fall the tourism season will be in the toilet and they will have to really cut prices just to get the bottom feeders that usually go to Cuba

Jamaica troubles could mean travel deals to come
Tourism officials launching $10-million campaign to boost country’s image

By Jim Byers
Travel Editor
It’s been a tough time for Jamaica and Thailand. But that could make both countries a great deal for visitors.

There’s always a huge flurry of concern, and understandably so, when a country has political or crime problems, or suffers a natural disaster. Much hand-wringing has taken place in Thailand because of the demonstrations and violent protests in Bangkok. Jamaica has been undergoing its own trauma in the form of Kingston clashes between police and protesters trying to prevent an alleged drug dealer from being extradited to the U.S.

Canadian officials have warned citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Kingston and exercise a high degree of caution in Jamaica in general. But there’s been little suggestion of trouble in resort areas away from the capital.

The Jamaican tourism minister, Edmund Bartlett, has estimated that Kingston’s troubles have cost his country’s tourism sector $350 million U.S. Bartlett has announced a $10-million “promotional and advertising campaign,” which was set to start this week, to try to combat the negative images of blood in the streets.

“It is not going to be a quick fix,” Bartlett warned. “We think that we need at least nine hard months out there to bring it back because the nature of the damage that has been done out there to the brand is very extensive.”

That could mean some terrific bargains for savvy shoppers.