WESTERN BUREAU – Unfazed by the damage Hurricane Ivan wreaked on some sections of the island’s tourism industry, the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association expects a good winter season, with at least as many visitors coming to the island as last year.

“I would not say (this winter season will be) one of the best ever, but I would say – at minimum – (it will) equal the last winter season, which was a very good winter,” said JHTA president Godfrey Dyer.

According to the Jamaica Tourist Board, there were 454,223 stop-over visitors to the island last winter and 472,052 who arrived by cruise ship.

There had been concerns that bookings might fall off as a result of the damage the category four storm did to sections of the island’s tourism industry, but Dyer does not appear worried.

“We are still looking forward to a good winter tourist season,” he maintained, saying all hotels would be open when the season officially begins on December 15.

According to the JHTA head, Kingston, where the industry had suffered the least damage during Hurricane Ivan which battered the island between September 10 and 11, has fully recovered while Montego Bay and Ocho Rios are at 95 and 60 per cent recovery, respectively. And Dyer stressed that while Negril – the resort area that was worst hit – was only at 40 per cent in its recovery, that tourism town would also be completely back to normal in time for the winter season.

“Negril would take anything up to two months to get back to recovery,” he said.

“The eastern side (of the resort town) where the larger hotels are, they have started to recover and over the next two weeks, we would see some – if not all – of the larger properties reopening.”

Among the properties that are already back in business, he added, were the two being operated by the Spanish chain Riu.

Marketing, always vital, will play an even greater role in the sector this winter season as industry leaders move to convince the marketplace that Jamaica is open for business.

Dyer said some properties have already started their own overseas campaigns and the Jamaica Tourist Board would kick-start its promotion within the coming months. Some properties, he added, have already flown in travel agents in a bid to promote their respective resorts ahead of the JTB’s full-scale campaign.

“We are going to use the next two months to fly in travel agents. We will also be going overseas on blitz days. We will be doing a lot of promotion to ensure that bookings are in place for the winter,” he said. “Some properties, (from) as early as last week, have brought in travel agents but we intend to intensify it in October.”

He was unable to say, however, how much the advertising campaign would cost, saying the final figures were not yet available.

“There is not yet a fixed budget as to what is going to be done, but I don’t think it is going to be much more than what the (original advertising) budget was,” he said.