The Jamaicans rush to the island ready to travel in the busy season when Melissa wakes up
Jamaica’s high tourist season is one month away, and officials in a hurricane-prone state are scrambling to rebuild the 5-star base that destroyed the Western region.
Before Hurricane Melissa hit on Oct. 28, the government expected Jamaica’s tourism industry to grow by seven percent this winter and was preparing to welcome an estimated 4.3 million visitors.
Now, officials are scrambling to renovate hotels and clear debris on the island’s western side in hopes of getting tourist dollars at a time when they’re most needed.
“We’re still doing our assessment, but most of the damage was in the northwest and southwest,” said Christopher Jarrett, who heads the Jamaica Hotel and Tourism Association.
He noted that the famous area of Negril in Westmoreland was spared much damage.
Airports have reopened
All international airports in Jamaica have reopened and are receiving commercial flights. But nearly a week after one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record hit the West End of Jamaica, tourism officials were still trying to get a true picture of the damage to the economic sector.
Jarrett said the Lobby Group, which represents private hotels and attractions on the island, could no longer reach many of its members, especially in the West Hanover region, as the connection to electric services was down.
“Every single person affected is doing everything to get back and running,” he said.
In recent days, Exports Minister Edmund Bartlett said he expects Jamaica’s tourism sector to return to normal by December 15, the start of the peak season.
“It helps some and not others,” Jarrett said of the time, pointing out that the big hotel chains will be able to recover quickly.
Despite disruptions to the critical tourism sector, Jarrett said he does not expect the Cold Failout to be significant. He said many hotels in the capital city of Kingston and the North Coast Town of Ocho Rios were getting business from AID workers.
Tourism is Jamaica’s main source of foreign exchange earnings, contributing a combined 30 percent to GDP directly and indirectly. It employs an estimated 175,000 people and is a major economic driver in other sectors of the Jamaican economy, such as construction, banking and finance, utilities and agriculture and agribusiness.
Disruption in the tourism sector also affects many suppliers of goods and services.
“There are some hotels closed and most of the tourists have left, most of us have been left out of work. This storm has never destroyed buildings;
Farmers, fishermen hit hard
While official damage assessments are still ongoing, experts say it is clear that the strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and dealt a devastating blow to tens of thousands of Jamaican fishermen and farmers who feed their families and nearby communities.
In WestMoreland Parish, the western part of the South Island, Denver Torpe lost six hectares of mango trees and two greenhouses on his farm.
“There’s nothing,” said Thorpe, a farmer and Jamaica regional manager of agriculture, the Farmer Advocacy organization.
The destruction comes just 15 months after the storm burned 50,000 farmers and 11,000 fishermen CDN CDNs (about $40 million CDN) in agricultural losses, according to fisheries.
Tarpe said: “We were almost turning a corner.
Jamaica has over 200,000 farmers tending livestock and growing bananas, watermelons, cocoa and much more.
Food produced for domestic consumption and export – Jamaica is one of the quietest Yam in the world and its coffee growers produce $ 25 million US ($ 35 million CDN) Every year.
