TOURISM arrivals — a key indicator of economic performance — dipped for the first half of 2013 by 4.2 per cent below year-earlier levels.
The decline, which is among the largest in five years, is related mainly to the normalisation of cruise arrivals following record growth in recent years.“We are coming from two years of record growth, so you are now seeing the stabilisation of that activity,” said William Tatham, vice-president of cruise shipping at Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ), in an overseas phone interview on Monday.Jamaica’s cruise sector since 2011 became the fastest growth market in the Caribbean due to the island’s newest port, Falmouth Cruise Pier.But January to June 2013 recorded dips in both arrivals by air, at 1.2 per cent, and sea, 8.5 per cent, compared with year-earlier levels, according to latest data published from the Jamaica Tourist Board. Put another way, total arrivals fell by 78,000, or by 4.2 per cent, from 1.85 million 1.77 million people visiting Jamaica.Official data also showed that the average length of stay for foreign nationals fell from 8.3 nights across all types of accommodations to 8.2. But if overall spending was constant, earnings from the sector, which is the second largest foreign exchange earner after remittances, likely fell in the first six months of this year.Tatham said that there was a slight summer fall-off as some ships opted for activities in the Mediterranean in Europe.“There is nothing really dramatic that has happened to the sector. We had a soft summer,” he said.Expect winter and next summer to rebound with the introduction of new cruise ship companies’ entry into Jamaica, including Disney Cruises and MSC Cruise, he said.Additionally, the Government and its agencies plan to upgrade Ocho Rios pier, formerly the nation’s busiest prior to the multimillion development of Falmouth Cruise Pier.The decline in stayover tourist arrivals largely reflected a reduction in visitors from Canada, the island’s second largest source market. Visitor arrivals by air from USA and Europe actually increased over the period.Concurrently, there is a rise in new markets, including France and Eastern Europe. French tourists are now among the largest group from continental Europe, and are almost equal to the number of Germans who visit the island.In contrast, just four years ago, France, as a source market for Jamaican tourism, was ranked seventh from Europe and 11th globally.Last month, Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) President Evelyn Smith told the Observer that increased airlift hiked arrivals from those new markets. Conversely, she indicated that reduced airlift from Canada contributed to that market’s decline.Arrivals from the United Kingdom (not part of continental Europe) continue to lead total European arrivals at some 70,700, but they were down 0.7 per cent year-on-year. Another non-traditional source market, Russia, continues to rise fast and now halves French arrivals.Jamaica earned US$2 billion from tourism arrivals in 2012, roughly a two per cent increase year-on-year, according to the Annual Travel Statistics published by the Jamaica Tourist Board.Visitor arrivals by air and sea hit a record 3.3 million in 2012, up 7.4 per cent year-over-year, according to the data. Most of the growth, however, came from an increase in cruise passenger arrivals, up 17 per cent.BOView the original article here
Tourist arrivals down for first half of 2013
