Devon Evans, Gleaner Writer

STEWART

OCHO RIOS, St. Ann:

One of the island's major hoteliers, Gordon 'Butch' Stewart, is predicting a decline in tourist arrivals for the upcoming season.

Stewart, the chairman of Sandals International Resorts, said although the past year has been one of the best for Jamaica and Sandals in particular, it will be difficult to repeat this performance.

"It is going to be a bit of a struggle. No maybe about that," he told The Gleaner.

Figures released by the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) on November 1, showed that between January and September gross foreign exchange earning from tourism amounted to US$1.4 billion. This represented an increase of 24.6 per cent over the corres-ponding period for 2005.

The JTB said there was also a 17.2 per cent growth in stop over arrivals, which stood at 1.3 million visitors.

However, Stewart says the record earning from tourism this year was mainly due to a windfall from Cancun in Mexico and New Orleans, in the United States which were affected by major disasters.

On the weekend, the Sandals International Resorts chairman also joined in the call for general elections to be called to allow the country to focus on other important matters.

"I think tourism is our biggest business. It needs a lot of attention and I think the policies need to be refined better," he remarked.

Stewart said the present tourism policy is badly hurting the small hotel sector and should be quickly addressed.