Monique Hepburn, News Editor
PENNICOOK
WESTERN BUREAU:
TOURISM NEEDS a huge advertising boost to reverse a fall-off in visitor arrivals, several sector interests groups say.
Arrivals out of the United States during May to August stood at 381,210 visitors, a two per cent decline over last year. For Canada and Europe, the total number of visitors stood at 79,623, an 11 per cent fall-off. For Latin America, the Caribbean and Japan 512,178, a 4.1 per cent decline over last year.
The original forecast was for an increase of eight per cent for this year, Josef Forstmayr, chairman of the joint marketing committee of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association, said. But some sectors in the industry are now experiencing hard times.
"The tourism industry is limping along," Opposition Spokesman on Tourism, Ed Bartlett, told the Financial Gleaner. "The JTB's projection of an eight per cent growth will be a figment of the imagination."
But Director of Tourism, Paul Pennicook, disagrees. "I expect a good winter," he said.
MARKETING MEETING
"We are having a joint marketing meeting tomorrow (today) where we will give an outline on the marketing and advertising and I want to present data there first," Mr. Pennicook sated. "I know the figures are low and, strangely enough, I expected them to be lower. But I will present the plan to show what we will be doing."
Hurricanes 'Rita' and 'Katrina' have devastated a vast swathe of territory in the United States in August and September, resulting in massive economic dislocation. The U.S. is Jamaica's main tourism market with the majority of the island's visitors coming from that country.
"The JTB needs to immediately pump approximately $3.1 billion into its marketing, advertising and promotions programme to deal with Europe, now that the United States is trying to recover from its disasters," Mr. Bartlett said.
Vana Taylor, president of the Jamaica Association of Villas and Apartments, has also called for a massive advertising campaign to reverse industry trends.
CRUISE SHIP CALLS UP
According to the statistics that were released by the Research and Marketing Intelligence Unit in the JTB's marketing department, cruise ship calls have increased generally but there is a slight decline in passengers. Stopover arrivals for Montego Bay from January to August show 220,653 passengers, a 1.8 per cent decline. Figures for Ocho Rios show 532,852 passengers, amounting to a 0.5 per cent increase over the previous year.
Mr. Bartlett said that the problem with arrivals actually started after Spring Break, and is due in part to the weak marketing and advertising programme that was in place leading up to that period.
"The industry now is in a negative growth mode and a 15 per cent annual growth rate for the next five years is what is required to bring occupancy up to 65 per cent," Mr. Bartlett stated. "Current occupancy is in the low 50s.
When you now add a further 2,000 rooms this year and increments of thousands of rooms, you are then going to require a higher level of increase in marketing to maintain that level of occupancy and arrival volumes."
