When tourism planners totted up the figures, it made a compelling point. Last year, Jamaica earned US$110 million in revenue from a record-breaking 1.1 million cruise passengers, against $1.19 billion from 1.2 million stop-over visitors - those who book into hotels and spend at least 24 hours.

BELNAVIS. it's like a sample when they come on the cruise ship

The cruise passengers each spent, on average, approximately US$88 per day while on land, whereas the stop-over visitors spent, on average, US$100 per day. But with accommodation and other charges, it costs each stop-over visitor just a shade over US$991, on average, to visit the island, hence the lopsided income structure between the two groups.

The cruise shipping industry contributes an estimated 10 per cent to the island's tourism industry with stop-over visitors generating much more revenue for the island. And there has been a long-running debate over the amount of taxes paid by hoteliers versus the fees paid by cruise liners.

A cruise liner docked in Montego Bay.

The government is now moving to convert a significant number of cruise passengers to the island into stop-over guests. To accomplish this goal, they will use a "passenger conversion programme".
If successful, the plan might not necessarily mean an increase in overall visitor arrival figures, but it should mean a significant jump in earnings from the sector, the state-run Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) hopes.

"I could easily see it starting during the winter season (December 15 to April 15)," says David Shields, the JTB's deputy director of marketing under whose portfolio the project falls.
Shields says the likely start-up date is early in 2005, as some areas are still to be finalised. These include:
. incentives to attract the visitors,

. the construction of a website, and
. the making of the special coins that would be used by visitors who sign up for the programme.

DYER. cleaning of resort towns is top priority

In January 2002, a similar programme was launched in Montego Bay through the combined efforts of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sandals Resorts, Air Jamaica Vacations and the JTB. It lasted six months and was expected to generate an additional 50,000 stop-over visitors per year.

The effort saw JTB and Air Jamaica Vacations representatives manning booths at the Montego Bay cruise ship terminal with the aim of getting a better understanding of how to persuade passengers to spend some time in the city's hotels.

Information gleaned from questionnaires handed out to cruise passengers was to be used by Air Jamaica Vacations to convince cruise passengers to return to Montego Bay as land-based visitors.
But the effort failed, according to one industry player.

"It was not successful, as far as I know," says Lee Bailey, a director of the Montego Bay Chamber and who was part of the team responsible for the programme's implementation. Bailey contends that a strategy that he formulated and presented to be used - but later rejected - would have yielded the desired results.

TATHAM. the best way to convert a passenger is to deliver a first-class product

His formula called for much less information - just name, address and contact number - and visitors would be given a token, with a reference number, to be used when booking into a local hotel.
That programme, he contends, is now being copied elsewhere in the Caribbean.

"They must adopt the programme that I had suggested two years ago. Now someone has adopted it and is trying to impose it on another island. I'm not against it, but I'm saying we could have been the leader," Bailey complains.

But still, expectations about the success of this newest initiative are high. Corah-Ann Sylvester, the president of Seaboard Freight and Shipping Jamaica Limited (SFS), which is sponsoring the project, was upbeat when the Sunday Observer spoke with her.

"We have committed to sponsoring the programme; we are going to pay for the things necessary to start the programme," Sylvester remarks. "We have said 'yes' because when you work with a community, you offer them service and you want them to do well. We feel strongly about giving support to our people that we do business with."

The process, said to be a simpler one than that used two years ago, envisions getting the hotels, tour operators and other tourism players to commit to the programme. Once this is done, there will be signs posted at the piers telling cruise passengers that Jamaica is part of the conversion programme.

Interested passengers who sign up will be given doubloons (coins) with a reference number which they will use to access a prescribed website that offers discounts on accommodation and services in Jamaica. The doubloons would double as a souvenir from Jamaica as it would have a logo identifying with the country.

The project is designed by Tropical Shipping which, like Seaboard Marine, is a cargo carriage company.
The new effort comes less than a year after the government signed an agreement with one of the major cruise operators, guaranteeing the country a minimum amount of cruise passengers over a five-year period.

The "facility fee agreement", signed February 5 this year, will see Carnival Cruise Lines guaranteeing 2.5 million cruise passengers over the next five years. Under the agreement, there will be a fixed passenger fee for each contract year, and, in return, a guaranteed minimum of 500,000 cruise passengers per annum to Jamaica with at least 80,000 specifically to the port of Montego Bay.

The project also forms part of the government's ambitious 10-year Tourism Master Plan (TMP), which seeks to boost stop-over arrivals from 1.3 million to 2.2 million visitors by 2010. At the same time, the TMP is seeking to increase cruise passenger arrivals to 2.2 million up to the same period.

But the conversion programme has drawbacks - one would be cost. Having spent money for a cruise, the average tourist might not be in a position to afford a land-based vacation any time soon after that.

Some argue that the effort would be better served if potential vacationers were targeted prior to their booking their cruise passage.
But most tourism experts agree that Jamaica has what it takes to draw tourists to her shores, even though there is always room for improvement.

"At the end of the day, it is our belief that the best way to convert a passenger is to deliver a first-class product," says director of cruise shipping and marine service William Tatham.

"We think a lot of focus should be on improving the product, the roads, the atmosphere, the ambiance, the streets. We need to improve the way that we treat our passengers - when they come off (the ship) we can't afford to be harassing them and that, to me, is how you convert a cruise passenger."

Godfrey Dyer, the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) president and owner of the Wexford Hotel in Montego Bay, thinks the cleaning of resort towns is top priority.

"When passengers coming into Montego Bay or Ocho Rios walk in these towns and there is a clean environment and there is no harassment, this is what will cause them to like the country and want to come back," Dyer argues.

And Michael Belnavis, the chairman of the Ocho Rios Cruise Shipping Council, agrees that Jamaica is a good destination for such a programme to work but stresses that the experience on the first trip was very important.

"The experience has to be such that once they come (to) Jamaica - because it's like a sample when they come on the cruise ship - the attraction, the look and the feel, the people, the cleanliness have to be so positive they (will) want to spend more time here," Belnavis is convinced.

Should the exercise be a success, the tourism sector would be well placed to achieve its targeted growth rate in rooms from the current 25,000 to 35,000 by 2010, as provided under the Tourism Master Plan.

It would also mean that the targeted jump in employment in the sector from just below 80,000 presently to 130,000 over the same period would be met more readily.

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