SMALL hoteliers on the island's South Coast are apprehensive about their future, buckling under the twin pressures of spiralling operational costs and low occupancy levels.

Chair of the South Coast Chapter of the Jamaica Hotel Association (JHTA) Judy Schoenbein, speaking at the Observer's Monday Exchange at the newspaper's Beechwood Avenue headquarters in Kingston yesterday, said some properties were paying in the region of $700,000 per month for electricity costs.

"We are a little scared, to say the least, and we are very concerned about the operational costs. One hotel has already closed its doors. We may have one or two others who have said to me 'the operational costs may overtake' them," she said.

Schoenbein said in order to foot those bills with any comfort, hotels would have to have 100 per cent occupancy. In addition she said the south coast, which has some 750 rooms comprising small hotels, villas and apartments and bed and breakfast outfits, has also been impacted heavily by the shutdown of bauxite companies in St Elizabeth and Manchester.

She said hospitality interests in the direct locations of

the bauxite companies have been feeling the pinch even more, since they depended heavily on the influx of consultants and travellers linked to that sector.

"This is an all time low for us," Schoenbein told editors and reporters, noting that that there is low projected occupancy.

She said tourism interests on the south coast will be depending heavily on the Diaspora to communicate to the outside world about the country's product as well as on the Jamaica Tourist Board's marketing campaign to show the area.