All-day rain held up just in time Saturday evening to allow Jamaica Cruising’s Second Annual Regal Rewards Awards to unfold in glitz and style, recognising the top five highest-performing travel advisors driving cruise sales to Jamaica.

Hosting the awards ceremony for the second-straight year, Sandals Ochi Beach Resort in St Ann rolled out the red carpet for an evening showcasing service excellence, dedication, and sales innovation within the cruise industry, organised by Jamaica Cruising, the flagship brand of Jamaica Vacations Limited (JAMVAC).

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett credited the travel advisors for the value they bring to Jamaica, saying: “I’m very pleased to say that notwithstanding the disruptions that we’ve had in cruise — and they have been many — Jamaica’s cruise activity has stood its ground, and this year, we have done over one million cruise passengers visiting the shores of Jamaica, and have, in fact, contributed over US$200 million to the economy so far.”

The top five Regal Rewards winners who were wined, dined and entertained all evening, were: Jacquetta White of Inteletravel from Raleigh, North Caroline who took first place; Carol Williams-Gridine of Xstream Travel from Columbia, South Carolina, the second place winner; Stephanie Mays of Xstream Travel, third place winner, also from South Carolina; Amanda Santana of Travelin Dreamz, fourth-place winner from Brooklyn, New York and now residing in Clearwater, Florida; and Mindy Kleeburg of Lamacchia Travel, fifth-place winner from Wisconsin.

“I want to say to the award winners tonight that you’re awarded because you add value to Jamaica’s tourism and the cruise tourism experience… Cruise tourism is what we call the activity of tourism with the highest level of convertibility of the dollar,” said Bartlett.

“That is to say, as the ship comes into the harbour, the dollar comes out immediately and gets into the pocket of the ordinary person in the community, while other areas of tourism, you know, you have three months sometimes to wait. And sometimes the creditors are very angry because they now have to say to their creditors, wait. And it becomes a waiting game. “Well, with cruise tourism it’s instant convertibility. The dollar gets into their pockets immediately, and the little man in Ocho Rios has an opportunity to go and pay his bills immediately after the cruise ship leaves,” the tourism minister said.

He described Ocho Rios as a booming centre of commerce and activity because of its cruise port that brings nearly one-third of all the cruise passengers who come to Jamaica.

Acknowledging the difficulties inherent in the landscape around tourism, he said Jamaica is truly resilient because the industry is “the most vulnerable industry on planet Earth”, but that “vulnerability is only overtaken by our ability to bounce back after the most difficult situations, and not just bounce back, but to grow and to grow exponentially”.

The current hurricane season has impacted tourism arrivals for this year so far, and there’s a system forming south of the island that is becoming Hurricane Sarah that may impact other areas. He noted that cruise partners had already signalled the possibility that some redeployment of vessels out of Jamaica may occur because of the weather situation.

“So we are accustomed to having disruptions, but we have built the capacity to respond, to respond quickly, to recover and to recover well and to move on. And our recovery is eminent in our own situation in Jamaica, because, yes, we had some difficulties this year.

Bartlett also pointed to disruptions in the aviation industry, adding that manufacturers Airbus and Boeing can’t produce the planes that are required, “so airlines are ordering 75 planes and getting 25, ordering 25 and getting one. And then the maintenance groups are also unable to do the overhauling of the engines on a timely basis, as a result of which less seats are being made available”.

“Jamaica suffered that. We got some 20 per cent less seats this year than last year. We’re going to do better next year. But that is the reality, so that even with the demand being strong for visitors to come, we were constrained by the fact that the seat capacity was reduced. Nothing you can do about that. That’s external, or what you call exogenous shocks.

“So Jamaica is not exempted from these disruptions, but I just want us to know that we are going to overcome our disruptions, and we are not going to be driven by the naysayers and negativism.”

The minister thanked JAMVAC Executive Director Joy Roberts and her team for putting on an excellent second tourism cruise regal awards. Master of ceremonies was Cassidy Keane, JAMVAC communication consultant.