Cagey Vacationers Cancel Trips to Jamaica

Jamaica’s booming tourism industry has taken a hit as a result of four days of gun battles in a Kingston neighborhood where Christopher “Dudus” Coke, wanted for extradition by the United States on drug and weapons trafficking charges, based his operations.

Since the Jamaican government declared a state of emergency in the area, some tourist hotels and resorts report a high number of cancellations, airlines have cancelled or rescheduled flights and the U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory urging Americans to defer non-essential travel to Kingston.

Based on traffic during the first three months of this year, Jamaica was poised to have its best tourism year on record. More than 500,000 foreigners traveled to Jamaica in the three-month period, a 9.2 percent increase over the same period a year ago.

But the Ministry of Tourism says the country’s resorts have had no new bookings since the siege began May 24, killing dozens of people in the Tivoli Gardens section of Kingston.

The tourism business generates an estimated $350 million in revenue, 7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. The government has already planned a $10 million advertising and publicity campaign to counteract the news of the shootings, and some resorts were offering special deals.