Janet Silvera and Daraine Luton, Gleaner Writers

A view of the cruise ship, 'Freedom of the Seas' which docked in Montego Bay recently. - File

WESTERN BUREAU:

The United States Government's recent decision to grant a two-year extension to cruise line passengers to present passports on reentering the U.S., has sent Caribbean land-based tourism interests into a state of shock.

The amendment to the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), by the U.S. Congress last week, delays the implementation of the new passport requirements until June 1, 2009, for land crossings at the Mexican and Canadian borders for cruise passengers travelling to the United States from the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada or Bermuda. But the measure still requires all U.S. citizens travelling by air to these regions to have a passport by January 8, 2007.

Potentially catastrophic

Describing the decision as "a Category Six hurricane," Secretary General of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation, Vincent Vanderpool Wallace, said the potential economic impact on land-based businesses could be catastrophic.

"It is incomprehensible that the United States Government would approve an amendment that excludes air arrivals from the Caribbean and thereby grant an additional advantage to cruise lines in the Caribbean who already enjoy a significant competitive advantage, especially in light of the fact that the cruise lines supported the inclusion of air arrivals also," stated the secretary general.

In the last year, affected governments in the Caribbean have made their own representation through several diplomatic channels, even as recently as last Wednesday prior to the final vote on this bill.

As the shock waves jolt the region, Peter J. Odle, president of the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA), cautioned that the Caribbean countries affected stood to face a genuine economic and social upheaval, caused by the inevitable shift in travel by U.S. citizens.

"Tourism is the lifeline of the Caribbean, where the industry spans the depth and breadth of the national economies and represents as high as 97 per cent of all direct and indirect jobs in the country," Odle noted. "For the Caribbean nations affected, the economic impact has the potential to be disastrous."

CHA has maintained that any postponement of the WHTI implementation should apply equally to all countries involved and equally to travel by land, air, and sea, and that no country or industry should be disadvantaged arbitrarily to the economic advantage of any other sector.

Reacting to the U.S. decision, John Issa, chairman of the SuperClubs chain of hotels, yesterday called on governments of the region to "immediately form a united front in dealing with this potentially devastating state of affairs."

No option

"The result of this exemption will be that travellers to the Caribbean without passports, who very often book at very short notice, will have no option but to avoid staying at hotels and take a cruise instead," Mr. Issa told journalists at his New Kingston offices.

He said that governments in the Caribbean have only one option and that is to get all persons, travelling either by air or sea, to have a passport, which costs less than U.S. $100.

Chairman of the Jamaica Tourist Board, Dennis Morrison's reaction to the news was that this could severely affect the jobs of workers in the hotel industry. Research by the World Travel and Tourism Council, on behalf of the CHA, showed that the region stands to lose US$2.6 billion in revenue and more than 88,000 travel and tourism jobs as a result of the WHTI.