Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
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JHTA says no to Caricom visa

Saturday, January 6, 2007

Under bold headlines 'JHTA says no to Caricom visa', Horace Peterkin, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association stated in a Jamaica Observer article 'the industry would prefer if Caricom abandons the visa requirement, but if it did not, Jamaica should put its national interest first and go it alone'.

‘We know that security is a main concern of the ICC and our governments, but projecting a few months of cricket versus losing years of sweat, equity, reputation, and confidence of these markets along with the immediate income of the stakeholders (some of whom could go out of business) is a very hard bill to swallow,' Peterkin wrote in a letter to Jamaica’s tourism minister, Aloun Assamba.

Peterkin predicted ‘massive and immediate cancellation of all forward bookings’ from countries which are now required to get Caricom visas.

'This matter is a grave one which needs to be explained to Jamaica. Caricom has done it again… this time in the name of 58 days of World Cup Cricket…How this could happen is beyond all of us in the industry’, said Peterkin, who is also general manager of the Sandals Montego Bay Resort!

Adrian Loveridge
Barbados

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