Director of Tourism Fay Pickersgill entering the JTB head office on her first day on the job in February 1994. (Photo: Michael Gordon)

FAY Pickersgill yesterday announced her decision not to renew her contract as director of tourism, ending an almost nine-year tenure in one of Jamaica's most powerful and challenging jobs.

Pickersgill, whose contract expires in January next year, will go on vacation on November 1, according to a news release from the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), the state agency with which she worked for almost 30 years.

"It was a good innings, a long innings," Pickersgill told the Observer last night. "But there comes a time in life when one has to take a look at the future."

She said she enjoyed the experience and considered herself fortunate to have gained "such a broad-based knowledge of the industry".

Last night, a government source confirmed that Pickersgill had, from as early as May this year, made known her intention not to stay in the job beyond her contract period. In fact, according to the source, Pickersgill was thinking of "packing it in" in September this year after a sporadic industry row over the JTB's advertising spend, that started in the winter of 1999, erupted again in the summer.

At the heart of the dispute was an accusation, spearheaded by Sandals Resorts chairman, Gordon "Butch" Stewart, that the JTB was spending too much of its budget on administration instead of on advertising and promoting Jamaica.

But Pickersgill had consistently argued that her organisation was always limited by budget constraints and that the JTB was actually understaffed.

Since the winter of 1999, the JTB has been forced, each year, to seek additional funding from the government to mount advertising campaigns, irritating the local industry which has harshly criticised the administration for what appeared as indifference to the sector.

In August this year, the JTB was again thrown into the centre of controversy after the circulation of an anonymous e-mail alleging professional misconduct by three senior staff members at the agency's New York office.

Tourism Minister Portia Simpson Miller ordered an immediate probe of the allegations and since then, Noel Mignott, the deputy director of tourism for the Americas, as well as Yvonne Sawyers, the accountant/administrator, have resigned. Another senior executive in the JTB's New York office, Marie Deeble-Walker, the advertising relations manager, was fired.

Pickersgill was not named in the e-mail and, according to JTB sources, was as surprised as many Jamaicans about the allegations.

"It is just unfortunate that the New York situation is taking place under her watch," said one tourism analyst who declined to be named.

Yesterday, hotel mogul John Issa said that he could well understand Pickersgill's decision not to renew her contract.

"The last few years have been tumultuous, with the state of the industry and other problems. Probably it is the best decision for her because it must have been very stressful," Issa said.

"In a way, it allows the JTB to be reorganised and restructured," he added.

Pickersgill started working at the JTB as a young graduate of the University of the West Indies, spending much of her early years in the agency's Corporate Planning and Research Department, which she headed during the 1970s.

In the 1980s, she played a major role in the establishment of the Tourism Action Plan (TAP), now the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo), the agency responsible for improving the quality of Jamaica's tourism product.

Pickersgill became director of tourism on February 1, 1994 and has been credited with guiding the JTB's renewed initiatives for increasing business in the European, African-American and special interest travel markets.

Her tenure, the JTB said yesterday, has seen great emphasis on sensitising younger Jamaicans about tourism's value and potential through a programme of infusing tourism into the schools' curriculum.

Yesterday, Pickersgill admitted that while the job offered "many challenges" she "derived immense satisfaction, fulfilment and enjoyment" in carrying out her tasks.

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