Tourism stands strong: Minister says winter season should see improvement: Cruise-shipping industry needs a lift
Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer
Bartlett
WESTERN BUREAU: Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett is projecting a five per cent increase over last year’s figures in stopover visitors this winter tourist season.
The industry reported a two per cent growth last winter.
“The airlift is greater than ever and projected even at a 70 per cent load factor. This would mean improvement over last year,” he told The Gleaner on Wednesday, while boasting of a record number of 17,800 passengers arriving at Montego Bay’s Sangster International Airport on the first weekend of the season.
“Barring any acts of God or the Queen’s enemy, then we should have a good season,” he said, admitting that again this year the country’s stakeholders would be faced with a buyer’s market, which would remain until consumer confidence returned after the worldwide recession.
In a buyer’s market, that group dictates the rate of accommodation and in some cases, transportation.
According to the minister, the airlift strategy, which his ministry implemented almost two years ago, continues to work.
“Last Friday, we introduced a new gateway from Phoenix, Arizona, and by December 28, we will have flights coming out of Rome in Italy.”
He said the fastest growth market, Canada, was looking extremely good and that he expected a repeat of last year or, better, with West Jet, one of the largest operators in that market, beginning daily flights from across that country in the new year.
Year to date, Canada is about 29 per cent up on last year and Germany is running over six per cent.
With the deal struck with European tour operator TUI, that market should inject some well-needed business into the mix.
new advertising campaign
In the United States, which remains the country’s most important gateway, Bartlett said the country was advertising on every major cable network and would roll out the new advertising campaign with triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt in the first week of February.
The only area the minister is concerned about is the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) which, he says, has seen a drop in its arrivals.
“We would have been doing better if NMIA was showing more growth,” he stated, noting that the effect of the recession on the diaspora market could be the reason for NMIA’s slowdown.
In the meantime, checks made with the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) revealed that although the booking trend has changed considerably, the outlook was reasonably good.
“We are projected to continue to perform at the same growth levels currently being experienced,” president of the JHTA, Wayne Cummings, told The Gleaner.
Currently, the growth being experienced is approximately four per cent.
“This is firmly based on the fact that the public- and private-sector marketing programme has been consistent and effective to drive the national arrivals,” argued Cummings, who feels that the country could not be doing any better in the “recession market”.
“The sobering balance to this is that with a large block of new rooms and more soon to come, the average occupancy in the country has actually declined. Additionally, the achieved rates are heavily discounted and will continue to put pressure on the ‘real’ inflows from the industry.”
hotels upbeat
He is convinced that all tourism businesses must tighten their costs to fit the new reality of reduced rates, and expected that this buyer’s market may obtain for far longer than “we are able to predict”.
Richard Bourke, area chapter chair of the JHTA, Montego Bay, said most hotels were upbeat and had reported solid booking for Christmas and New Year.
The cruise-shipping industry, which went through a 25 per cent decline this past year, remains flat.
“There is definitely a downturn in the tourism capital, Montego Bay. However, Ocho Rios will have an increase in numbers with Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Sea,” noted chairman of the National Cruise Shipping Council of Jamaica, John Byles.
This time last year, Montego Bay had the Liberty, which was coming in every other week.
In some months, the downturn was as much as 40 per cent, said Byles. He said the business had been going to where the cruise lines have their investment, such as Grand Turks, Turks and Caicos Islands, Roatan, St Maarten and now Cozumel in Mexico.
“Although Falmouth will be coming in, it will take a while. For the most part, it will be very difficult. There is no question that there is a shift, we have to attract the investment of the cruise lines,” argued Byles.
A world-class pier is being built in Falmouth, Trelawny.
janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com
