Jamaica is counting the economic cost of the damage done to its already vulnerable economy, not least its crucial tourism sector, following several days of intense violence linked to efforts by the government to comply with a request by the United States government for the extradition of alleged drug kingpin Christopher “Dudus” Coke.

Threats to Jamaica’s attractive and historically lucrative tourist industry associated with gang violence and a high death rate linked with gun crimes are nothing new though the lure of its attractive tourist spots including its sun and sand filled North Coast beach resorts and its annual multi-million dollar investments in marketing the tourism product have overcome tourist fears associated with violence.

This latest threat to the industry, however, have come on the heels of a tough season the result of reduced visitor arrivals linked to the current global financial and economic crisis. What is at stake is a US$4 billion industry that accounts for 20% of the country’s GDP. The recent violence has put a sharp brake on record levels of visitor arrivals on the island during the first quarter of this year. Between January and March an estimated 500,000 foreigners visited Jamaica, an increase of more than 9% on the same period last year.

The change these past few weeks has been both sudden and harsh. Violent clashes between members of the Jamaica security forces trying to flush out Coke and gunmen, primarily though not exclusively in parts of West Kingston triggered a US State Depart-ment security advisory urging Americans to delay non-essential travel to the island and the rescheduling of flights by airlines to avoid landing in the capital after dark.

Reports from Kingston indicate that several of the country’s famed hotels, night spots and restaurants have been virtually deserted and the country’s Information Minister Daryl Vaz has reportedly been working overtime to assure potential visitors that the famed North Coast resort region remains safe. Meanwhile, the famed Sandals group has reportedly dispatched emissaries abroad to spread the word that Jamaica is safe. Sandals boss Gordon “Butch” Stewart has reportedly invested heavily in a sales pitch aimed at efforts to quickly reclaim lost visitor traffic. Stewart was quoted in a media interview last Saturday as saying that Sandals teams were scheduled to depart the island for the United States, Canada, Britain and continental Europe.

Used as the country is to steering a marketing course for its tourism sector amidst frequently choppy seas of inner-city violence, the Bruce Golding-led Jamaica Labour Party government has sent clear signals that it is not about the give up on the country’s tourist industry. Long before the smoke had cleared in the gun battles that have characterized the search for Coke, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett had already begun to talk up the winter tourist season while the Ministry of Tourism and the Jamaica Tourist Board had announced the launch of a US$10 million promotional and advertising campaign in the country’s main North American and European markets on June 4.

If the extent of the investment in the campaign may seem sizeable it is a piffling sum when compared to the likely US$350 million loss from winter earnings. Jamaica understands too that an initiative of this nature is needed to allay safety concerns among travel agents and potential visitors.

In Kingston, Bartlett has persisted in a succession of public statements that reflect an unbridled optimism that Jamaica remains, “perhaps, the safest destination for tourists.” Bartlett has also made the point that Jamaica boasts one of the best repeat business records of any destination in the Caribbean with some 52 per cent of visitors having visited at least once before.

In a recent media interview Bartlett insisted that Jamaica’s travails notwithstanding its winter season “would be very strong.” Indeed, so confident is the Tourism Minister in the resilience of the country’s tourist industry that he believes that the country may even be able to recover “much of what we may have lost for the summer.”