By Andrew Green, Staff ReporterTOURISM HAS now shifted onto a path of real growth, says Jamaica Tourist Board chairman Dennis Morrison.
Jamaica's best year for stopover visitor arrivals was 2000, Mr. Morrison said. And, he said, a recovery underway over the past year has now reached the point where year 2000 arrivals levels are now being surpassed.
"Anyone who has anything to do with the tourist industry is either quiet or smiling," he said, "which I take to mean business is booming."
Financial Gleaner interviews with hoteliers in Ocho Rios, Montego Bay and Negril over the last week, point to generally high occupancy levels currently and good prospects for the Winter season.
Mr. Morrison was speaking on Tuesday at a Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica job creation awards presentation at the Terra Nova Hotel, St. Andrew.
RECOVERY
"Tourism in the first half of this year and the latter half of last year went through a recovery phase," he said.
The country had 1,276,516 stopover visitor arrivals in 2001, a 3.5 per cent fall from the 2000 level. The reduction came about after internationally-featured domestic political violence in the middle of 2001 was followed by the travel-throttling September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, Jamaica's main tourist market.
Jamaica had 678,315 stopover visitor arrivals in the first half of this year. This was seven per cent above the level last year, but 4.3 per cent less than the arrivals level the year before.
But the 122,071 stopovers in June represented a 7.4 per cent increase on the 2002 level and 1.6 per cent above the 2001 and 2000 levels.
"We are now embarking on growth," Mr. Morrison said. "The first two weeks in July significantly exceeded our performance in the last three years."
In the first two weeks of July, arrivals were 9.9 per cent above the level last year, he said.
One marker for the vibrancy in the sector is the investment in new accommodation now underway in the sector. He said this represented a pace of expansion "that I haven't seen for over 30 years."
REASONS
There is no "secret or magic" behind the reasons for the expansion, he said. It is largely fuelled by investments from Spain.
There are four main reasons for the investments and expansion, he said. "One is that the Mediterranean and North Africa are now seen as a problem area because of terrorism," Mr. Morrison said.
The second reason is the strength of the euro, he said. "That means territories in the (US) dollar zone are very attractive areas for European tourists. The strongest growth in tourism is actually from Europe."
And, "whether we believe it or not, Jamaica has an astoundingly strong brand name among destinations," he said.
The last critical element is that, "our industry is pulling together in a very co-operative way and that always makes the difference in economic activity," Mr. Morrison said. "Those are the elements working for us and we just have to consolidate and do what we have to do."
