AMERICAN Airlines (AA) received the bulk of the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) contracts to fly 2,000 travel agents to the island mostly in September in an attempt to bolster the island’s image following the extradition of Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.

These just released contracts showed a portion of Government’s US$10 million public relations campaign to save tourism — a vital source of employment and foreign exchange.

AA’s contracts totalled some $12.7 million to fly agents to cover two core events. It represented three times the value of similar contracts to Air Jamaica at some $4.3 million based on just contracts posted this month by the Office of Contractor General.

Great Adventures Travel Tours received the second highest contracts at $9.5 million followed by Air Tran at $7.1 million and Jet Blue at $6 million.

The JTB said in response to Business Observer queries that the country received value for money.

“Solid bookings for the Winter Tourist Season are an indication that the funds were used effectively,” stated a JTB response sent via head of communication Kingsley Roberts.

The events included The Image Restoration Farm and ‘Wish You were Here’.

“This Fam trip and image restoration exercise was necessitated by the fallout from West Kingston incursion and was aimed at restoring the country’s image,” the ministry stated. “All these activities were geared towards restoring the nation’s image given the negative effect of the ‘Dudus Affair’.”

Earlier this month, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, said that December was heading for record tourism arrivals. Latest data indicated that the winter tourist season saw an 11 per cent increase in stop-over visitors in the first week of the season which began December 15. According to the week’s figures, 44,600 tourists arrived in Jamaica, compared with the 40,000 who arrived in the similar period last year.

Stopover arrivals in May and June fell by 2.4 per cent and 2.6 per cent respectively after the number of visitors that overnighted in the island climbed in April by 1.7 per cent. The decline coincided with police and military efforts to quell violence occurring in Kingston around the time the security forces were trying to arrest Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke for extradition to the United States to face gun and drug trafficking charges.