GORDON ‘Butch’ Stewart, the Caribbean’s leading hotelier last night suggested that support by Jamaica and other regional countries for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was behind a United States decision that has sent shock waves through the region’s tourist industry.

Almost in unison, the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourist Organisation (CTO) and the Puerto Rico-based Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA) said the region would reel from the US Congress vote Monday to amend the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative in favour of Mexico, Canada and cruise shipping companies, over airline passengers going to the Caribbean.

The CTO described the American vote as akin to “a category 6 hurricane” for the region, while the CHA warned affected countries to brace for “a genuine economic and social upheaval, caused by the inevitable shift in travel by US citizens”.

The US government amendment delays the implementation of the new passport requirements until June 1, 2009 for land crossings at the Mexican and Canadian borders and for cruise passengers coming to the US from the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada or Bermuda, but still requires all US citizens travelling by air to these regions to have a passport by January 8, 2007.

It came as part of the Homeland Security Department’s requirement that all US citizens returning to the United States have passports, with the deadline for enforcement being January 8, 2007.

But regional tourism interests fear there will be a sting in the tail, specifically a huge drop in American visitors who can’t bother to get passports to travel by air and would find it much less hassling to take a cruise vacation.

“That decision is probably the single most destructive economic catastrophe that could happen, short of a nuclear attack on Caribbean countries,” Stewart said from Antigua and Barbuda, adding that the job losses would be horrendous.

He said the US was sending a powerful signal to the Caribbean and if regional leaders did not come together to find constructive solutions, it would be to the certain detriment of the tourist industry.

Stewart said it appeared that the region’s flirtation with Venezuela’s Chavez had triggered the US decision, referring to Chavez’ description of President George W Bush as “the devil” in his recent speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The hotel magnate said Americans, including Democrats and minorities, had been “revolted and offended” by the description of their president, based on talk show polls taken the morning after.

“If I were a betting man, it would seem quite reasonable for me to put my money on the fact that the Caribbean’s flirtation with President Chavez, after his assault on President Bush, is probably the single biggest reason for this policy decision. There is simply no other logical reason why something this devastating and draconian could be inflicted on the region,” Stewart argued.

Stewart’s hotel chain, with 14 Sandals and four Beaches properties in Jamaica, St Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, is the largest operator of luxury, ultra resorts in the Caribbean and the largest employer of choice.

He advised the Jamaican and other regional governments to “get very smart very quickly” and to use every conceivably means through diplomatic channels to “put the region on an even footing with Mexico and the cruise shipping lines”.

“America is a fair country, and I am sure if she gets the respect she deserves, bridges can be amended,” added Stewart.

Jamaica’s second biggest hotelier and operator of the Superclubs Chain, John Issa, also called yesterday on Caribbean governments to act immediately, suggesting they implement a requirement for all American passengers coming to the Caribbean islands to have passports, in order to level the playing field between cruise ships and hotels.

This option would allow them to protect the many jobs provided through land-based tourism industry and the billions of dollars of investment in their land-based tourist industry.

“If this is done, not only will the lobbying clout of the cruise industry be used to get the necessary exemptions for landed tourists but failing that, the land-based tourism industry and all its support services would be devastated during the coming years,” Issa said at a hastily called press conference.

“The Governments of the Caribbean should immediately form a united front in dealing with this most potentially devastating state of affairs,” Issa urged.

Breezes Runaway Bay, one of the hotels in the SuperClubs chain, last month invested US$20 million (J$1.3 billion) to expand and improve its facilities ahead of the 2006/07 winter tourist season, which begins on December 15, Issa disclosed.