Latibeaudiere
JAMAICA COULD lose up to US$95 million in tourism revenues as a result of the September 11 terror attacks in the United States, according to the Bank of Jamaica (BoJ).
Governor of the BoJ, Derrick Latibeaudiere told journalists yesterday that tourism revenues for the quarter would dip by 30 per cent. He was speaking at the presentation of the Bank's September Quarterly Monetary Policy Report.
Jamaica earned US$317.2 million from tourism revenues for the December quarter of last year. Gross expenditure for the year was US$1.33 billion. "The services sector will be influenced by a projected decline of 20 per cent in the tourism sub-sector," Mr. Latibeaudiere said. The decline in arrivals was expected to translate into 30 per cent reduction in revenues.
The decline in revenues was not just affected by the September 11 terror attacks in the United States, but also by the "lingering concerns," from the social disturbances in July, Mr. Latibeaudiere said.
Tourist arrivals declined by 21.8 per cent for the month of September, the Monetary Policy Report said. Expectations were that visitor arrivals would decline by a similar magnitude for the December 2001 quarter.
But sources at the Bank told The Gleaner that the most recent tourism arrivals data, obtained after the Monetary Policy Report was published, suggest that the fallout could be less than the US$95 million projected. This is because there are signs of recovery at some key hotel properties and load factors have improved on the national carrier, Air Jamaica.
In any case, there will be a reduction in revenues and this has consequences for the foreign exchange market.
Mr. Latibeaudiere said, "given the expected fallout in earnings from the tourism sector, the central bank will supplement supplies to the foreign exchange market as necessary."
