The Editor, Sir:

I write in response to a letter from John Lynch, director of tourism/chairman of Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) published in your paper on the September 22. In his letter, Mr Lynch expressed concern that in my recently published analysis of the state of the industry titled, 'Tourism's Silver Lining', I may have been questioning the 3.4 per cent increase in stopover arrivals for the first six months of this year and by extrapolation the accuracy of the research unit of the JTB.

For the record, my article did not question the 3.4 per cent increase or the competence of the research unit of the JTB, a group whose professionalism and credibility I have always respected.

The relevant points I made were that:

There was a 9.3 per cent increase in room stock in 2008 due to the investments brought in by the previous administration and, therefore, if stopover arrivals grew only by 3.4 per cent then overall occupancy levels must be down.

Since there has been heavy discounting of hotel rates this year, and arrivals figures are relatively flat then earnings from the sector must be down significantly.

Superficial and misleading

I made these points to emphasise that although stopover arrivals are marginally up, with occupancy levels and earnings being down which is really what matter to the operators, they must be hurting. So to speak continually of growth in arrivals as the ultimate goal is superficial and misleading. Indeed this is one of the issues that has caused tension between members of the tourist industry and the minister recently.

On a related matter, it has been brought to my attention that the preliminary stopover arrival figures, previously made available to industry stakeholders and JTB board members have been restricted and these figures are now only being given to the minister and to the director of tourism/chairman of JTB.

If this is so, it would be an unfortunate reversal of practice, and a direct contradiction of the promise of openness and transparency on which this administration campaigned. Jamaica's success in tourism is dependent on the partnership between the Government and industry stakeholders.

Information is an important tool in strategic planning and if it is true that these statistics are now being restricted to just these two persons then we would have taken a major step backward. I look forward to the director of tourism/chairman of JTB clarifying this matter and if true correcting this retrograde move.

I am, etc.,

WYKEHAM MCNEILL

Opposition Spokesman on Tourism