WESTERN BUREAU – The Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) will meet later this week to hammer out a marketing strategy for the island’s post-Hurricane Ivan tourism industry.

“On Friday, we will be meeting to discuss strategy in the marketplace and so our marketing committee is putting things together for that meeting,” said JHTA president Godfrey Dyer.

“At that meeting we will formulate the plans that we will put in place to make us move forward.”

The tourism official was speaking with the Observer yesterday, shortly after an emergency meeting of association members that was called to assess the level of damage the hurricane had done to the sector.

An aggressive marketing of the tourism product, said Dyer in expressing his personal opinion, should form the centrepiece for the way forward.

“I think that what is going to happen is the call for the flying-in of travel agents and press people, and hoteliers going on promotion overseas,” the JHTA president said.

During yesterday’s assessment, he explained, the general consensus was that the resort town of Negril was the worst affected.

“Many hotels on the West End are badly damaged. Many hotels on the beach side have structural damage and many are presently without water and electricity,” he noted.

Yesterday, the Observer reported that at least three properties in the area had temporarily closed their doors in the aftermath of the category four storm.

The properties – Grand Lido, Sandals Negril and Hedonism II – largely had damage to landscaping.

According to Dyer, some Kingston hotels suffered minimal damage but they are all still operating.

While properties in Ocho Rios are being affected by a lack of water and electricity, those in Montego Bay had access to those amenities.

The JHTA president admitted, however, that there have been several cancellations in the aftermath of the storm.

“There have been, for example, some chartered flights that have been suspended for a few days but many of them will start coming back as early as Saturday,” he said.