MONTEGO BAY, St James Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett estimates that the loss incurred by the tourism sector, resulting from last week's civil unrest in which the security forces and gunmen from Western Kingston, loyal to Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, were locked in fierce firefights for two days, to be up to US$350 million.

"That (fallout) could be in the region of US$300 million to US$350 million. That's the fallout we could have if we don't go out there and do this restoration job that has to be done," Bartlett told the Observer yesterday.

Noting that the six per cent projected growth in arrivals is now being threatened, the tourism minister announced the launch of a massive "promotional and advertising campaign" to begin during the first week of June, estimated to cost Government an additional US$10 million, to counter the negative image portrayed globally and woo visitors to the destination once again.

The tourism minister was speaking to the Observer shortly after the end of a two-day meeting involving highly-placed officials of the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) and other stakeholders held at the Secrets Resort and Spa here in the city of Montego Bay over the weekend.

The meeting was held to assess the damage that the Jamaican brand had suffered from the damning international reports of the atrocities in West Kingston during efforts by the security forces to nab Coke who is wanted in the United States on arms trafficking and narcotics charges.

Bartlett insisted that with Government's budgetary support and support from key stakeholders, the industry will rebound.

"We think that a partnership which will involve resource support from the trade, as well as resource support from the industry, along with the Government's additional budgetary allocations which we have to get, we should see a very strong campaign that we need to see the recovery that we want and the growth that we projected".

But the tourism minister surmised that a full recovery of the sector could take up to nine months of rigorous promotional and advertising campaigns, due to the extent of the destruction of the image of the destination.

"It is not going to be a quick fix, it is not something that is going to happen within the next two, three months. We think that we need at least nine hard months out there to bring it back because the nature of the damage that has been done out there to the brand is very extensive. It covers all the key market places as well as the market we were about to go into such as the Russian market that we had plans for, the Brazilian market and also the Canadian which has been so strong".

Over the weekend, JHTA president Wayne Cummings, who also attended te emergency summit, reported that "arrivals are now picking up", after reports of large-scale cancellations in the wake of reports of the stand-off in West Kingston.

He attributed the curbing of the cancellations to a quick response by the tourism sector to get the word out in the market that the violence was restricted to the urban area; and not to the traditional resort areas such as Montego Bay.

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