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Opposition spokesman on Tourism Dr. Wykeham McNeil is calling on the Ministry of Tourism to revise its projections for stop-over tourist arrivals and visitor spending for the rest of the year.
Dr. McNeil says despite recording a 13% increase in stop-over arrivals last winter season and posting the best industry performance in stay-over visitors last year, he does not believe that the picture for the rest of 2008 will be as rosy as expected.
Opposition spokesman on Tourism Dr. Wykham McNeil believes continuing misfortunes in Jamaica's most significant tourism market, the United States (US), will depress the country's inflated numbers and expected tourism revenues.
US conditions will affect numbers - McNeil
Dr. McNeil said the forecast of 13.5% increase in stop over arrivals projected earlier this year could be dampened by several factors.
"I believe that we're going to have a very difficult September, October, November but I think we saw some of this coming. The storm clouds of a recession (in the US) have been looming since last December ... we saw the rising oil prices, it's an election year, an Olympic year ... all these things affect travel.
So, when you were hearing the prediction of 13.5% ... on a number of occasions we were saying to the minister that this was not attainable," said Dr. McNeil.
He noted that new marketing thrusts in the Canadian and Chinese markets have borne some fruits in arrivals and tourism spending.
However, he advised that there are signs of economic deterioration in other market destinations now being pursued which could further thwart spending prospects.
More aggressive marketing
The Opposition Spokesman is also urging tourism officials to implement plans to counter any negative fall-out in the industry.
Mr. McNeil said contingency marketing will be vital because of indications that Jamaica is likely to end up with as much as a 6% increase in stop-over visitors by the end of December.
"We're going to have to put a lot of things in place to ensure that should these conditions continue we have aggressive marketing conditions in place and that we differentiate ourselves and take as much as we can out of all the tourism markets that exist," he said.
Dr. McNeil says despite recording a 13% increase in stop-over arrivals last winter season and posting the best industry performance in stay-over visitors last year, he does not believe that the picture for the rest of 2008 will be as rosy as expected.
Opposition spokesman on Tourism Dr. Wykham McNeil believes continuing misfortunes in Jamaica's most significant tourism market, the United States (US), will depress the country's inflated numbers and expected tourism revenues.
US conditions will affect numbers - McNeil
Dr. McNeil said the forecast of 13.5% increase in stop over arrivals projected earlier this year could be dampened by several factors.
"I believe that we're going to have a very difficult September, October, November but I think we saw some of this coming. The storm clouds of a recession (in the US) have been looming since last December ... we saw the rising oil prices, it's an election year, an Olympic year ... all these things affect travel.
So, when you were hearing the prediction of 13.5% ... on a number of occasions we were saying to the minister that this was not attainable," said Dr. McNeil.
He noted that new marketing thrusts in the Canadian and Chinese markets have borne some fruits in arrivals and tourism spending.
However, he advised that there are signs of economic deterioration in other market destinations now being pursued which could further thwart spending prospects.
More aggressive marketing
The Opposition Spokesman is also urging tourism officials to implement plans to counter any negative fall-out in the industry.
Mr. McNeil said contingency marketing will be vital because of indications that Jamaica is likely to end up with as much as a 6% increase in stop-over visitors by the end of December.
"We're going to have to put a lot of things in place to ensure that should these conditions continue we have aggressive marketing conditions in place and that we differentiate ourselves and take as much as we can out of all the tourism markets that exist," he said.
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