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Stewart EARLY ELECTIONS would help ease the crime situation, says Air Jamaica chairman Gordon 'Butch' Stewart.
According to the business mogul, tourism is still suffering from the fallout of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, and he suggested that one of the most effective ways of ensuring the industry's recovery would be to substantially reduce the country's high crime rate.
"One of the ways to get rid of the crime is to get a new mandate," Mr. Stewart said. He was addressing a Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) panel discussion at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston yesterday.
"Fly the gate and have early elections," said Mr. Stewart, who is also chairman of the Sandals Resorts Group. "April is a good time."
"When you look at the tourism situation in Jamaica," Mr. Stewart said, "the numbers are coming up, but the dollars are not."
Stopover tourist arrivals fell 20 per cent in September, followed by a decline of 20.7 per cent on October, 14.9 per cent in November and 8.8 per cent in December, according to Jamaica Tourist Board figures for 2001. Overall stopover arrivals for the year was down 3.5 per cent at 1,186,996 visitors.
Stopover arrivals might be down about 3 per cent, but tourist industry revenues last year fell about 20 per cent, said former Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association president James Samuels, who also addressed the JCC session. This decline was due to discounting of prices in the softening travel market.
"If you get rid of the crime you might have a growth rate of 20 per cent," Mr. Stewart said. "It would improve every single number."
Mr. Stewart's call for elections in April came against the background of a prediction by Opposition Leader Edward Seaga earlier this week that elections would be called by April. Mr. Seaga said the country's difficult financial situation precluded the presentation of a Budget this year.
Mr. Seaga's prediction was countered by the guest speaker at the JCC function, Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr. Omar Davies who said a Budget would be put before Parliament this year and that he was willing to give the date on which his presentation will be made.
