The Editor, Sir:

The recent pronouncement by the President of the JHTA, Mr. Wayne Cummings, that he welcomes the government's postponement of the proposed Montego Bay convention centre, forces us to question whether the JHTA is any longer a lobby group for its members, and has become an apologist for the Government.

The Montego Bay Convention Centre, which will bring diversity to marketing Jamaica's tourism, for decades has been the subject of a tremendous lobby effort by the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry as well as the Montego Bay chapter of the JHTA. It is being designed as a modern, state-of-the-art facility, capable of hosting large and small meetings, conferences, exhibitions etc., and when completed, will comprise some 215,278 square feet of space.

This is being funded by the Government of the Peoples Republic of China in the amount of RMB350m (US$45.2m) and the Government of Jamaica in the amount of J$700 million. (US$10m).

The project has been redesigned after ongoing consultations with the hotel and the tourism sector for a second phase to accommodate an additional contiguous 25,000 square feet to allow for 50,000 square feet of exhibition space that could be used as a concert hall for music festivals.

Funding in next budget

This addition will need to be funded and the JHTA could be a useful lobby group to ensure the Government also provides this funding in the next Budget. If Horace Peterkin wants a larger convention centre, he should by all means lobby for an expanded facility. But he should bear in mind that it will be at a substantial additional cost from the same Government that can't find its share of the cost at this time.

The postponement will certainly result in the inevitable delay of the planned commencement of Jamaica's marketing thrust to meeting groups, convention and association groups as part of the sales and marketing campaign to diversify Jamaica's market reach.

We have been very successful in breaking into the couples only and the honeymoon market. However, Jamaica must now do more to fill the additional 6000 rooms that will be opening by the end of 2009.

The recent statement by the Minister of Finance on the postponement of the convention centre did not state that construction would commence next April, contrary to what the JHTA's president has inferred. In fact, the minister has postponed the Government's input of some J$700 million of financing from this Budget to the Budget year commencing April 2008.

No specific date for commencement of construction is now known, nor do we know how the Government of China will react to this and if they will agree to this indefinite postponement, given the fact that they are ready to begin construction.

I am, etc.,

DAVID G. WELSH

Patterson Avenue

Ironshore, Montego Bay