MONTEGO BAY, St James — TOURISM Minister Edmund Bartlett yesterday revealed that faced with a global economic crisis, the formula which has resulted in the record growth in stop-over and cruise arrivals in the recently concluded winter tourist season was the taking of risk with airlift arrangements along with an aggressive marketing campaign.

According to the tourism minister, as a result of the combination, preliminary figures revealed that between December 15 and April 15, the destination recorded a growth of 5.6 per cent in visitor arrivals over the corresponding period in 2010 and welcomed 9.6 per cent more cruise passengers in the corresponding period.

“Jamaica has remained resilient to the pressures and challenges of the global economic crisis and has been experiencing growth upon growth by taking risks with airlift arrangements; new and aggressive marketing campaigns,” Bartlett argued.

The tourism ministry has increased its budget for “seat risk support” from $19 million in 2010/2011 to $398.4 million this year, most of which ($294 million) will be funded by the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF).

“I would like to share with you a bit of the positive results these strategies have yielded. April marks the end of the winter tourist season and our preliminary figures show that we have achieved 5.6 per cent growth in stopover arrivals between December 15 and April 15, which is in keeping with our growth projections of four-five per cent.”

He explained that during the winter tourism season, which started in mid-December and ended the 15th of this month, 743,776 stop-over visitors were recorded, up from 704,320 for the same period in 2010; while 398,772 cruise passengers were welcomed, up from 363,818 who arrived in 2010 representing a 9.6 per cent growth in cruise stop arrivals during the period.

The combination of stopover and cruise visitors, brings the total number of visitors for the period to 1,142,548, representing a seven per cent increase over the 1,068,137 who visited in 2010.

Bartlett was speaking yesterday at the beginning of the fourth staging of the two-day Tourism Outlook Seminar (TOS) held under the theme “Retooling for the New Decade…2011 and Beyond”.

TOS is a forum for regional and local tourism policymakers and stakeholders to share ideas, examine best practices and discuss strategies for addressing problems facing the Caribbean tourist industry. It is geared towards positioning the region’s tourism product to take better advantage of opportunities in the marketplace.

TOS is the brainchild of Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett. The first TOS was held in Kingston in 2008.