Taxi operators, particularly in western Jamaica, were yesterday mobilising for what they hope will be a crippling strike tomorrow, ostensibly over rising petrol prices and the one-third hike in motor vehicle licence fees this month.

But last night tourism leaders hit out against the planned shutdown and warned that road blocks and civil disobedience would severely undermine the resurging tourism industry.

“Anybody who gets it in their heads to start this nonsense will be labelled unpatriotic,” said Josef Forstmayr, the president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourism Association (JHTA).

Yesterday, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) denied official knowledge or participation in the planned action, although North West St James MP, Horace Chang, said that taximen in Montego Bay have asked his constituency leaders for organisational help.

He had received no directive from the party’s central office, Chang said.

In Kingston, the JLP’s general-secretary, Dr Ken Baugh, said any strike by taxi operators would not be politically motivated.

“We are not aware of it,” Baugh said. “If it is happening it’s spontaneous and has no political organisation behind it.”

While the planned strike was being thickly talked about in Montego Bay, several taxi operators in Kingston’s busy Half-Way-Tree/Constant Spring Road shopping area claimed not to have heard of it or spoke only whisperingly.

At the Pavilion shopping complex in Half-Way-Tree, several taxi drivers claimed to have heard nothing of the strike. One conceded to the Sunday Observer that he had been told by a colleague not to come out Monday because there would be a big protest.

Said another: “There is definitely going to be a big protest.”

There were reports in Montego Bay of old car tyres and debris being collected and stored to use as road blocks.

The police were apparently also preparing strategic plans in the event of road blocks and the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) sent representatives, including its general-secretary, Maxine Henry-Wilson, to Montego Bay to shore-up support.

In the western city, the JLP’s Chang said that it was unlikely that a taxi protest would result in a roll back of the licence fee for taxis, which has moved from $2,000 annually to $2,750.

Petrol prices at the pump have jumped on average about $2 a litre over the past fortnight, ranging between $25.27 and $27.13 per litre in Kingston, depending on the grade of petrol and location of the service station. Prices have moved higher because of a strike that has shutdown the Venezuelan industry and fears over war with Iraq.

“Governments very rarely roll back taxes,” Chang told the Sunday Observer. “They did roll back the gas tax (in 1999) but that’s a different ballgame.”

But Chang said that taxi operators in the city had initially “approached a number of people that I know”. “In fact, since you called me they have approached a number of JLP supporters, some of my leaders in the community, for support,” he said later.

But with bookings about to begin for the winter tourist season, hoteliers were disturbed that road blocks, reminiscent of the 1999 violent demonstrations against an increased tax on petrol, or those of July 2001 over disturbances in West Kingston would spell disaster for the industry.

Hoteliers said about 40 per cent of the bookings will take place over the next eight to 10 weeks.

“If we have major disturbances, shutdowns and disruptions at this time it would be an absolute catastrophe,” said Gordon “Butch” Stewart, the principal and chairman of the Sandals and Beaches hotels. “It would take years to recover.”

Tourism is Jamaica’s major foreign exchange earner, grossing about US$1.2 billion a year. The industry directly employs about 40,000 people and provides indirect employment for thousands more.

Stewart lamented Jamaica’s past of lock-downs and road blocks and said it was time for issues to be handled with “greater maturity”.

“We don’t have to always prove that we can lock down and who is in-charge,” Stewart said.

Diana McKintyre-Pike, owner/operator of the Astra Country Inn and Restaurant in Mandeville, warned against the planned action, saying that it would not help, particularly if it created panic among visitors.

“With the image that Jamaica has, we have to be careful with what we are doing,” McKintyre-Pike said.

“So far, the tourism season has been performing better than most of us had expected, so any type of action that will affect the industry will not work in Jamaica’s favour.”

The JHTA’s Forstmayr said that despite Jamaica’s image problem because of crime and violence, and the fall-out in international travel after the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States, the island was beginning to bounce back.

“We have the airlift, we are putting the advertising in place and things are beginning to look up. I hope that we just don’t spoil everything,” he said. “I am absolutely put out. People can demonstrate in a civilised, peaceful manner if they have the proper permits and so on, but we don’t expect people to create havoc and disrupt everything.”

He warned that with the world entering a recession, it would be more difficult for Jamaica to recover if things went bad again.

But not all taxi operators were in favour of a strike.

Fred Artwell, CEO of the umbrella group of taxi associations in western Jamaica called Active United Taxi Association argued for dialogue. His organisation represents about 500 of the estimated 6,000 licensed operators in western Jamaica.

“We believe in dialogue with the Transport Authority, the transport ministry and so on,” he said. “If we had intended to strike, we would have notified the police, the hospital, the schools and all the authorities.”