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Hospitality Jamaica: When Better is Worse
2011-06-07 14:39:08 | (0 Comments)
Many of the region’s hoteliers suggest that bookings, revenue and forward reservations are down across the year, while governments, tourist boards and tour operators are reporting significant percentage growth, Hospitality Jamaica contributor, David Jessop writes.
Jessop, in his column ‘When Better is Worse’ admits he is trying to make sense of the state of the Caribbean tourism economy.
“To further confuse the matter, some of the major European air carriers into the region that announced last year a significant airlift into the region for this year, yet have almost every Caribbean destination on sale and are offering, in the case of some islands, substantial discounts in all classes of travel,” said Jessop in his article which appears in tomorrow’s edition of The Gleaner’s tourism trade publication, Hospitality Jamaica.
The problem he says, “With these seemingly contradictory perspectives is that there are many factors at play and much depends on who is doing the looking”.
Accordingly, he explains the tourism arrival figures, noting that the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) statistics show that visitor arrivals from the UK to Barbados in the first quarter of 2011 at 557,000 were significantly higher than in the same period in 2010 at 483,000.
While this is good news said Jessop, it only paints a part of the picture. “This is because these same visitors spent less in the same period in 2011 compared with 2010 and just as importantly, both the arrival numbers and spend were significantly down on the same comparative quarter in 2008 and 2009.”
Jessop argues that what the tourist figures do not reveal is the cost of obtaining the visitor or the cost to the hotelier of a declining market. This he says is particularly significant at present in the case of the UK where the airlines and the industry has seen sales hit by Britain’s swingeing Air Passenger Duty and a continuing recession.
Jessop gives an insight into the state of the tourism sector in tomorrow’s Hospitality Jamaica publication.
Get your copy of the award winning Hospitality Jamaica in tomorrow's Gleaner to read this and other interesting articles.
[email protected]
2011-06-07 14:39:08 | (0 Comments)
Many of the region’s hoteliers suggest that bookings, revenue and forward reservations are down across the year, while governments, tourist boards and tour operators are reporting significant percentage growth, Hospitality Jamaica contributor, David Jessop writes.
Jessop, in his column ‘When Better is Worse’ admits he is trying to make sense of the state of the Caribbean tourism economy.
“To further confuse the matter, some of the major European air carriers into the region that announced last year a significant airlift into the region for this year, yet have almost every Caribbean destination on sale and are offering, in the case of some islands, substantial discounts in all classes of travel,” said Jessop in his article which appears in tomorrow’s edition of The Gleaner’s tourism trade publication, Hospitality Jamaica.
The problem he says, “With these seemingly contradictory perspectives is that there are many factors at play and much depends on who is doing the looking”.
Accordingly, he explains the tourism arrival figures, noting that the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) statistics show that visitor arrivals from the UK to Barbados in the first quarter of 2011 at 557,000 were significantly higher than in the same period in 2010 at 483,000.
While this is good news said Jessop, it only paints a part of the picture. “This is because these same visitors spent less in the same period in 2011 compared with 2010 and just as importantly, both the arrival numbers and spend were significantly down on the same comparative quarter in 2008 and 2009.”
Jessop argues that what the tourist figures do not reveal is the cost of obtaining the visitor or the cost to the hotelier of a declining market. This he says is particularly significant at present in the case of the UK where the airlines and the industry has seen sales hit by Britain’s swingeing Air Passenger Duty and a continuing recession.
Jessop gives an insight into the state of the tourism sector in tomorrow’s Hospitality Jamaica publication.
Get your copy of the award winning Hospitality Jamaica in tomorrow's Gleaner to read this and other interesting articles.
[email protected]