Jamaica's Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett (left), is greeted by chairman of Shao Qiwei, China National Tourism Administration, in Beijing during 'Jamaica Week' celebrations in China, which culminated on April 16. - Contributed

JAMAICA'S WINTER tourist season closed at a new record, with stop-over arrivals counted at more than 650,000, reflecting growth of 13 per cent, the Jamaica Tourist Board has said.

Tourist spend also rose 10 per cent to US$724 million, the agency announced Tuesday.

"This record number of tourist arrivals for winter 2007/2008 is an auspicious start to the year for Jamaica's tourism," said Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett from Asia, where he has been trying to drum up business for the island, notably from China.

On track

"It signifies that we are on track for double digit growth for the remainder of the year."

The winter season runs officially from December 15 to April 15.

The peak cruise season straddles the period. Performance in that sector was contained to one per cent growth, the board said.

Cruise vessels brought more than 530,000 passengers, which when combined with stopovers, put total arrivals at 1.2 million, just about 100,000 more than the previous winter.

Catalyst for growth

"The catalyst for this growth," said Bartlett, "can certainly be attributed to the surge of development in our accommodation sector, the burgeoning attraction sector, the ease of accessibility to Jamaica and the recognition of the amount and diversity of travel experiences to be had in Jamaica."

Bartlett was still in the Far East this week to attend the World Tourism Summit to be hosted by Dubai, whose transformative approach to tourism development has caught the world's attention.

Ambitious project

That country, under plans to transition from an oil dependent economy when its crude runs out to tourism, is undertaking its most ambitious project yet - a replication of the world as resort islands being constructed off its shores.

Jamaica in calendar 2007, according to preliminary central bank numbers published January, had 2.88 million tourism visits - of which 1.7 million were landed visitors, that is those staying overnight for one or more nights, while 1.18 million were cruise passengers.

The sector had foreign exchange receipts of $1.83 billion.

business@gleanerjm.com