Jamaican singer, Richie Stephens, performs 'Welcome to Jamaica', the local theme song for Cricket World Cup 2007, during the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival at Rose Hall in Montego Bay on Friday evening. - Claudine Housen/Staff Photographer

WESTERN BUREAU:

Pundits estimate that in excess of J$1 billion was pumped into the Montego Bay economy as a result of this year's staging of the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival.

Hotels in the tourism capital were filled to capacity; restaurants did not have enough wait staff to take orders; and regular shoppers had to fight for supermarket parking space. In addition, farmers were called on to provide additional fruits and vegetables, and transport operators kept their engines throttling as Brand Montego Bay took centre stage. The world-class event, which in its 10th year, has become an engine of major economic activity for the Second City, saw the organiser Turn Key Productions forking out more than J$100 million in expenditure.

Rooms full

Of the 5,000 rooms in the city, projections show that the larger hotels generated approximately US$150,000 (J$10 million) each per night, while the small and medium-size ones earned a quarter of that figure daily.

According to Turn Key Productions' Walter Elmore, this year's event has attracted over 6,000 visitors from overseas, and domestic tourism has seen vast increase. "We have doubled the size of the venue and are on par with the number of persons we accommodated during last year's Friday night concert," he told The Sunday Gleaner.

A three-day pass into the festival costs US$180 (J$12,000) per person, and it is estimated that some 15,000 people attended Friday night's event, which was billed at US$65 (J$4,300) per person.