JAMAICA’S tourism players do not believe the death of Pakistan’s cricket coach Bob Woolmer and the reports surrounding the case will negatively impact the island’s image.

Woolmer, 58, died Sunday, less than a day after his team was eliminated from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 when the team suffered an embarrassing defeat by Ireland. Pakistan’s coach since 2004, Woolmer was found unconscious in his hotel room, and later pronounced dead at the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston.

Last night, police confirmed that Woolmer was murdered.

However, despite the island being under the glare of the international media, junior tourism minister Wykeham McNeil says the Jamaican authorities are handling the situation like true professionals, and there should be no fall-out.

“From the point of view of even our discussions with the officials – locally and overseas – the feedback we have got so far is that Jamaican officials have dealt with it in a professional manner, and are trying their best under the unfortunate circumstances. We just have to wait until everything plays itself out,” McNeil told the Observer yesterday.

“I don’t think it is so much about how Jamaica is perceived. One of the things we have recognised is that as information has become available, it has been disseminated,” he added.

At the same time, he expressed empathy for Woolmer’s family.

“.We at the Ministry of Tourism are very sorry about the whole thing, and feel sorry for his family who are not here, and who may be hearing everything from the media,” he said.

The former coach is survived by his wife, Gill, and two sons.

Meanwhile, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), Horace Peterkin, said there was no doubt that the fervour of the CWC had been dampened by news of Woolmer’s death. But like McNeil, he foresees no negative effect for tourism from the case.

“It is an incredibly unfortunate situation because one of the major benefits from our participation in World Cup Cricket, in my mind, would be the potential spin-off from the positive PR from the opening ceremony, especially. And it would have continued, but that is now replaced by this news, which is not Jamaica’s fault at all,” Peterkin said.

“We were very unlucky in this case. But I have a feeling the world will not hold it against us. And eventually when it is settled, and I hope it is very soon, the memory of that incident would be much shorter lived than the opening ceremony and the subsequent matches,” he said.

“What I know is happening is that the tourist board and the Ministry of Tourism will get a little bit more involved in the PR side of it to manage that properly so that the focus is not entirely taken away from the positives that I have spoken about and that Mr Woolmer’s death will be put in the right context.”