WESTERN BUREAU
MINISTER OF Tourism, Portia Simpson Miller, is concerned that tourism is not being given the sort of priority treatment which she believes is required for the industry to get out of its current lull.
Speaking to The Gleaner on Saturday, the Minister said that she is not optimistic about the prospects for a good winter tourist season, noting that the global travel market continues to be hard hit by both the US recession and the fallout from the September 11 attacks on that country. She, however, added that the country needed to maintain a consistent presence in the overseas marketplace so as to be in a position to capitalise "if and whenever the travel sector returns to normalcy."
"I agree with most of the players that it will be a tough winter season," Mrs. Simpson Miller said. "We, however, have to maintain our presence in a marketplace that has now become more competitive than ever. I wish though that we had the required resources to do the things, which we know could really make tourism work for this country. If we were treated as a real priority it is amazing the things we could accomplish."
The winter tourist season officially started Saturday. Most of the major industry players including hotel mogul Gordon 'Butch' Stewart and president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), Josef Forstmayer, have already predicted that the season would be a difficult one for tourism interests.
And speaking on the same issue, Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) spokesman on tourism, Ed Bartlett, has also predicted a bleak winter.
Mr. Bartlett said that he expected a "very bleak" season because of the "dismal" combination of local and international situations.
"These conditions include a sluggish international tourism industry performance, an unsettling global industrial and financial meltdown in all traditional marketplace areas and Jamaica's own well-publicised internal domestic upheaval," Mr. Bartlett said.
He said that, consequently, the season will present grave implications for employment and economic growth and stability for Jamaica.
He said that this sorry Jamaican tourism "downsize" will eventually have a serious double-barrelled effect on the island. One is a continuation of massive job lay-offs right across the industry, which could total over 17,000 this year. The other was the huge government revenue shortfall in terms of hundreds of millions of dollars.
However, he said that there was hope for the cruise ship industry, which will have to play a significant role in any upswing, as the island is poised to benefit from extensive redeployment of vessels and cruise passengers arrivals could soon top the one million mark.
