Tweet
..... the energetic, competent and dedicated Mr Bartlett aside.... Jamaica's respectable or even impressive recent tourism performance rests mainly on (as I have pointed out
):
1. Spectacular room growth
2. Excellent airport infrastructure & management attractive to airlines
3. Significant marketing by the JTB (the only of these factors Bartlett has direct influence over)
4. Benefiting from Mexico's misfortune with swine flu
5. Heavy discounting
..... the article points this out to the discerning.
Sycophants will see in the same article the politician as the main engineer of the positive outcomes.
Jamaica one of only three Caribbean countries to have recorded tourism growth - Bartlett
By Al Edwards
Friday, July 24, 2009
While the rest of the Caribbean is experiencing a decline in tourist visitors, Jamaica continues to go from strength to strength due mainly to aggressive marketing initiatives and a collective effort by the country's leading hoteliers.
Making his contribution to the sectoral debate in Parliament last month, Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said, "In the first four months of this year, though most of the Caribbean is continuing to have difficulties, of the countries submitting reports to date, Jamaica is one of only three to have recorded growth."
Bartlett further noted that the Caribbean is the most tourism-dependent region in the world. Last year the contribution of travel and tourism to gross domestic product in the Caribbean was estimated to be US$39.9 billion. This represents 14.8 per cent of the Caribbean region's total GDP. The contribution of travel and tourism industry to employment is estimated to be 2,148,000 jobs, which represents 12.9 per cent of total employment in the Caribbean.
Looking across the region, real GDP growth for the travel and tourism-economy is estimated to be 2.1 per cent in 2008 and 3.3 per cent per annum over the coming ten years. It is estimated that stopover arrivals to the Caribbean from the main market of origin, the United States, increased by less than one per cent; Europe decreased by less than one per cent and Canada showed an increase of a remarkable 13.8 per cent.
Jamaican tourism nets US$1 billion in six months
The sector has done remarkably well, considering the world is undergoing the worst global financial and economic crisis since the 1930s. Bartlett has announced that for the first six months of this year the country has netted US$1.10 billion from tourism, the highest receipts recorded in the region. However, this was a marginal decline over last year's figure for the same period, which was US$1.17 billion.
Speaking with Caribbean Business Report last night, the minister of finance said, "This is truly a fantastic performance and much of the credit has to go to the hoteliers. We will continue to push for more arrivals and thereby create demand for other industries like agriculture, manufacturing, telecommunications, beverages and so forth. Tourism is now the only foreign exchange earner that is holding up."
Improving airlift
Bartlett has for some time now called for improved airlift to the country in an effort to boost arrivals. With Air Jamaica being positioned for acquisition, he does not want to put all his eggs in one basket. He drew attention to the fact that most of Air Jamaica's business is now ethnic and not tourism-based and that a number of different carriers are providing a boost to the tourism product.
Speaking at the sectoral debate, he said, "Given the significant growth in the accommodation sub-sector and growth in investments for attractions development and the wider tourism sector, we have had to pay very close attention to how we get people to Jamaica. I believe that it is fair to say that Jamaica's positive performance is due largely to our superior airlift capacity.
"Our strategy has been a combination of wooing and attracting scheduled carriers, stimulating the market to the point where charters are coming here in record numbers, and repositioning Jamaica Vacations Limited. Jamaica now has better than adequate airlift in place for the summer period, with over 1.2 million seats from the US alone. As demand grows, stimulated by aggressive marketing, the legacy carriers will continue to increase their capacity."
Tourism as an export sector
Bartlett has been a tireless campaigner for positioning tourism as an export sector. He has made it clear that tourism is not seen as a sector within the national accounts, let alone an export sector.
"We felt that this was untenable, and we set about to address the situation. This Government gave an undertaking to Jamaica that tourism would be made an export sector, in order to enhance competitiveness and improve the efficiency of tourism operators.
"What we are attempting to do now is disaggregate our national accounts and identify tourism as an accounting sector, in order to measure its direct contribution to GDP. In 2007, tourism contributed $176 billion to GDP. This did not take into account some activities which are related to tourism directly and indirectly.
"It is our view that the availability of the tourism satellite account (TSA) will now facilitate more accurate measurement and comparison of the economic contributions of the tourism sector to the national economy," said Bartlett.
One major Jamaican hotel group owner pointed out that several factors need to be considered in summing up Jamaica's performance. The fact that there are some 3,000 additional rooms added since last year, roughly a 10 per cent increase in total inventory, combined with the fact that many of the Spanish hotel groups diverted visitors from Mexico to Jamaica, among other Caribbean destinations, due to the swine flu pandemic, contributed to the rise in stopover visitor numbers, he said.
Discounting, meanwhile, which clearly contributed to a fall in tourism revenue, will be with us well into 2010, the hotelier predicted, adding that his particular chain has seen relatively strong numbers and has employed discounting to different degrees depending on where guests were departing from.
"Even as the economy improves, the stock market went above 9,000 today, for example, these sort of things have to build back up again, and that takes time," he said.
):1. Spectacular room growth
2. Excellent airport infrastructure & management attractive to airlines
3. Significant marketing by the JTB (the only of these factors Bartlett has direct influence over)
4. Benefiting from Mexico's misfortune with swine flu
5. Heavy discounting
..... the article points this out to the discerning.
Sycophants will see in the same article the politician as the main engineer of the positive outcomes.
Jamaica one of only three Caribbean countries to have recorded tourism growth - Bartlett
By Al Edwards
Friday, July 24, 2009
While the rest of the Caribbean is experiencing a decline in tourist visitors, Jamaica continues to go from strength to strength due mainly to aggressive marketing initiatives and a collective effort by the country's leading hoteliers.
Making his contribution to the sectoral debate in Parliament last month, Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said, "In the first four months of this year, though most of the Caribbean is continuing to have difficulties, of the countries submitting reports to date, Jamaica is one of only three to have recorded growth."
Bartlett further noted that the Caribbean is the most tourism-dependent region in the world. Last year the contribution of travel and tourism to gross domestic product in the Caribbean was estimated to be US$39.9 billion. This represents 14.8 per cent of the Caribbean region's total GDP. The contribution of travel and tourism industry to employment is estimated to be 2,148,000 jobs, which represents 12.9 per cent of total employment in the Caribbean.
Looking across the region, real GDP growth for the travel and tourism-economy is estimated to be 2.1 per cent in 2008 and 3.3 per cent per annum over the coming ten years. It is estimated that stopover arrivals to the Caribbean from the main market of origin, the United States, increased by less than one per cent; Europe decreased by less than one per cent and Canada showed an increase of a remarkable 13.8 per cent.
Jamaican tourism nets US$1 billion in six months
The sector has done remarkably well, considering the world is undergoing the worst global financial and economic crisis since the 1930s. Bartlett has announced that for the first six months of this year the country has netted US$1.10 billion from tourism, the highest receipts recorded in the region. However, this was a marginal decline over last year's figure for the same period, which was US$1.17 billion.
Speaking with Caribbean Business Report last night, the minister of finance said, "This is truly a fantastic performance and much of the credit has to go to the hoteliers. We will continue to push for more arrivals and thereby create demand for other industries like agriculture, manufacturing, telecommunications, beverages and so forth. Tourism is now the only foreign exchange earner that is holding up."
Improving airlift
Bartlett has for some time now called for improved airlift to the country in an effort to boost arrivals. With Air Jamaica being positioned for acquisition, he does not want to put all his eggs in one basket. He drew attention to the fact that most of Air Jamaica's business is now ethnic and not tourism-based and that a number of different carriers are providing a boost to the tourism product.
Speaking at the sectoral debate, he said, "Given the significant growth in the accommodation sub-sector and growth in investments for attractions development and the wider tourism sector, we have had to pay very close attention to how we get people to Jamaica. I believe that it is fair to say that Jamaica's positive performance is due largely to our superior airlift capacity.
"Our strategy has been a combination of wooing and attracting scheduled carriers, stimulating the market to the point where charters are coming here in record numbers, and repositioning Jamaica Vacations Limited. Jamaica now has better than adequate airlift in place for the summer period, with over 1.2 million seats from the US alone. As demand grows, stimulated by aggressive marketing, the legacy carriers will continue to increase their capacity."
Tourism as an export sector
Bartlett has been a tireless campaigner for positioning tourism as an export sector. He has made it clear that tourism is not seen as a sector within the national accounts, let alone an export sector.
"We felt that this was untenable, and we set about to address the situation. This Government gave an undertaking to Jamaica that tourism would be made an export sector, in order to enhance competitiveness and improve the efficiency of tourism operators.
"What we are attempting to do now is disaggregate our national accounts and identify tourism as an accounting sector, in order to measure its direct contribution to GDP. In 2007, tourism contributed $176 billion to GDP. This did not take into account some activities which are related to tourism directly and indirectly.
"It is our view that the availability of the tourism satellite account (TSA) will now facilitate more accurate measurement and comparison of the economic contributions of the tourism sector to the national economy," said Bartlett.
One major Jamaican hotel group owner pointed out that several factors need to be considered in summing up Jamaica's performance. The fact that there are some 3,000 additional rooms added since last year, roughly a 10 per cent increase in total inventory, combined with the fact that many of the Spanish hotel groups diverted visitors from Mexico to Jamaica, among other Caribbean destinations, due to the swine flu pandemic, contributed to the rise in stopover visitor numbers, he said.
Discounting, meanwhile, which clearly contributed to a fall in tourism revenue, will be with us well into 2010, the hotelier predicted, adding that his particular chain has seen relatively strong numbers and has employed discounting to different degrees depending on where guests were departing from.
"Even as the economy improves, the stock market went above 9,000 today, for example, these sort of things have to build back up again, and that takes time," he said.
Comment