Jamaica's tourism sector maintained its strong performance into December, the month that kicks off its most lucrative season, winter, with preliminary data suggesting visitor arrivals that topped 300,000 in the final month of 2006.

For the quarter October to December, Jamaica had an estimated 771,000 visitors - calculated on the Planning Institute of Jamaica's (PIOJ) 12.7 per cent estimated improvement in the sector year on year and the 684,000 visitors recorded for the matching 2005 period, reported by the Bank of Jamaica.

Overall, the subsector 'hotels, restaurants and clubs' which captures tourism activity, grew by 4.0 per cent in the quarter, contributing 0.3 points to the 2.7 per cent growth in GDP. The 0.3 points translates to an 11 per cent contribution to growth in the October-December period.

321,000 visitors in March

More than 323,000 of the combined cruise and air passenger arrivals in the review quarter, Wednesday Business calculations show, arrived in December, eclipsing the 321,000 visitors in March.

PIOJ reports that visitor spend was $524.6 million in the fourth quarter, up 27.2 per cent. Given the BOJ's reported spend of $231 million for October and November, the majority of visitor expenditure for the quarter of just under US$300 million would have occurred in December over the Christmas season.

Traditionally, December has been the most lucrative month for tourism linked to longer average stays of 12 days, compared to the 8-10 day stays for other months.

At the current estimates, visitor arrivals for the calendar year will top 2.8 million, compared to 2.6 million in 2005, while total is estimated above US$1.8 billion.

If the estimates for December hold, it would have set a new record for visits in that month, eclipsing the combined 296,000 air sea port arrivals for the comparative period in 2005.

business@gleanerjm.com