Jamaica had more than 180,000 stopover arrivals in July, its highest volume ever in any single month, the tourism marketing agency said Wednesday.

The figure represents a 19 per cent increase over the 151,289 tourists who stayed here in July 2005.

The Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association, while it could not quantify within any degree of certainty how much hoteliers influenced the record numbers, says it could be as much as a third.

"I can't give you a percentage of how much our members contributed, but for our group, the Sandals/Beaches brand, we spent somewhere in the region of US$40 million on advertising," said JHTA president and general manager of Sandals Montego Bay Horace Peterkin, Thursday.

"Other members like the SuperClubs chain and Sunset Beach also advertised aggressively, so we contributed a lot to the record arrivals in July."

For the calendar year to date, stopovers topped 1.07 million, an increase of 17.4 per cent, or approximately 159,000 over the 913,367 received for the same period last year.

Earnings

Using the average 2005 spend for stopover visitors/night of US$103.51, the July guests would have contributed earnings of US$18.6 million ($1.2 billion) to tourism.

"Our performance so far for this year has been strong, running ahead of projections, with record arrivals for each month of 2006," said JTB chairman Dennis Morrison, quoted in a Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) release on the numbers.

"I am encouraged with the direction of the industry and commend the efforts of all sections of the tourism sector for their contribution to the success being enjoyed."

Peterkin said Jamaica would also have got a bump from players like the Spanish chains, which have been very aggressive in their advertising campaigns.

"Airlines also contributed," he said. "We have 90,000 additional seats from Spirit Airlines, Virgin Airlines and other, so this has also been a major help, because they have a viable product."

Almost all markets performed 'credibly' in the July review period, said the Jamaica Tourist Board.

The United States, where 73.3 per cent share of Jamaica's tourism business orginates, accounted for 132,835 visitors in July - an increase of 16.2 per cent point on point.

Impressive result

In the meantime, Canada saw a 52.1 per cent increase, a result JTB pronounced "impressive", though the numbers at 12,295 stopover visitors were far below business from the U.S.

In July 2005, only 8,084 Canadians vacationed here.

Europe grew 17.7 per cent to 25,547 while Latin America had stopovers of a tiny 1,206, but which represented a huge jump of 67.7 per cent.

Morrison, pointing to ongoing sales blitzes and other initiatives, said he expects tourism growth to continue.

"These initiatives form part of an aggressive marketing campaign aimed at ensuring that the current momentum is sustained," said Morrison.

"I do expect that our figures will continue to grow over the remainder of the year and that Jamaica will improve on its record-breaking performance achieved during the 2005/2006 winter tourist season."

Hoteliers expect the fall season to be weak because of storm fears, but if the weather holds, "we can expect a 10 per cent to 15 per cent increase in arrivals this fall over last year," Peterkin said.

The winter season is looking good, the hotelier said, with the numbers indicating that business for that period might grow 17 per cent, well above the anticipated 12 per cent.

Its too bad those earnings from tourists don't get reflected back to hotel employees salaries, salaries for all workers on that island as a matter of fact!

And the funny thing is, the guys I know the best, the one's that worked with Jomo have all had issues with employment lately. Five complained about working goofy daytime hours and got laid off for the last 6 weeks, with only 3 back on the schedule for next week. Funny how the news reports are not reflected in the lives I know.

And, yah, the revenues are rarely reflected in any JA salaries. And, they have no recourse to protest.

__________________
Life's just a crazy ride on a run away train
You can't go back for what you've missed
So make it count, hold on tight find a way to make it right
You only get one trip
So make it good, make it last 'cause it all flies by so fast
You only get one trip

Totally, and if people who go to the same resorts watch, when they come back staff have changed, becasue they do not "raamp" to make people redundant for no reason, especially if they have been there a while. Can get younger people to worker for even less!
Shame it is.

It is a bunch of bull**** that they do that to their own people.

__________________
Life's just a crazy ride on a run away train
You can't go back for what you've missed
So make it count, hold on tight find a way to make it right
You only get one trip
So make it good, make it last 'cause it all flies by so fast
You only get one trip

My thought exactly, that's how Rupert lost his job 5 years ago!

Well they aren't doing it to thier own people...the people who own the resorts are foriegn investors.........they don't care about the people in Jamaica..the place i stayed owns resorts all over the world..they are not jamaicans who own that company and the people in the highest authority there were not jamaicans either.....better off to find a Jamaican owned place next time I stay there instead of the big resort.....its nice and convenient and they pamper you to death....but at what cost.......I tipped everyone who helped me cause they don't get paid enough by the hotel.....

Not true, Teach. The people I am talking about are not those that run the resorts. I know those issues. I am talking about the managers, supervisors, etc. who ARE Jamaican and treat their own people like ****.

__________________
Life's just a crazy ride on a run away train
You can't go back for what you've missed
So make it count, hold on tight find a way to make it right
You only get one trip
So make it good, make it last 'cause it all flies by so fast
You only get one trip

Exactly, its ultimately them that make the suggestions if not decsions of what happens day to day with their employees.

The stories I could tell about the bar manager at the Holiday Inn Sunspree would make your blood boil. She is the Jamaican version of Hitler, destroying everyone in her path.

__________________
Life's just a crazy ride on a run away train
You can't go back for what you've missed
So make it count, hold on tight find a way to make it right
You only get one trip
So make it good, make it last 'cause it all flies by so fast
You only get one trip

Yes well i know wht you mean......but they ultimately are doing what their bosses tell them too.......and it all comes down from above...the foreign owners set those "Unwritten" policies about cutting someone loose when they start to earn too much......and the Jamaican managers have a finacial incentive to do it........and they want to keep their jobs so they go along....I am not saying its an excuse but ultimately the blame falls on resort owners they set the policies..that everyone follows.....

I think a lot of stems from, when they get into a little bit higher position it goes to their heads! I compare them to customs agents! I know thats a big generalization, but i find a little bit of "power" goes to peoples heads and make them forget where they came from!

Damswell thats what i am saying they get a likkle more money and they don't want to lose that so they follow the policy even if its distatstefull......

It is a lot more then even that, Teach. It is as Damswell said "POWER". These people I am talking about in particular cannot possibly be taking these orders from higher ups. The day to day decisions they make are absolutely stupid. For instance, if an employee (or two or three) mention amongst themselves in a taxi that they really don't like working the day shift (prefer the evening) and another employee goes and tells the manager they said that, these employee(s) are left off the schedule for weeks (up to 6 for one now). Just cause they said something each and every one of us has said every day of our lives, probably. That is a power trip and nothing more. To show she has all the power and if they make any complaint about that (even if not directly to her), she has the power to do whatever she likes. And that is all her......not hotel policy.

I have many more stories like this.

__________________
Life's just a crazy ride on a run away train
You can't go back for what you've missed
So make it count, hold on tight find a way to make it right
You only get one trip
So make it good, make it last 'cause it all flies by so fast
You only get one trip

The daily schedule is not a decision that is made by a higher up, that is the day or night manager that does that. Ruperts friend is actually a bar manger on North Coast now (they grew up together), the only thing they get from "higher up" is outlines of what is expected. It is up to the bar manager to use his own descretion on how he runs things so they fit in with the "expectations". He then has to answer to the resort manager, who answers to the "higher" up.
Some managers like i mentioned before, at the end of the day go to their yard like everyone else, and in reality do not get paid that much more than the next guy, they just have "the power".