Everett Clay Associates are proud
Jamaican tourism had record growth for 2005
DIARIO Aruba
01/11/2006

ORANJESTAD (AAN): The news that shook up the Caribbean on Tuesday was when the government of Kingston indicated that the island of Jamaica received a record number of tourists for 2005, some 2.6 million. This is an increase of more than 4% compared with 2004.

It is more than clear that Jamaica is happy with this. In the happiness DIARIO noted the American promotion company, Everett Clay Associates. They are doing the promotion for Jamaica now, and this success made them very happy.

In the past, Aruba was also represented by Everett Clay Associates, who did a very professional work to promote Aruba.

However, when the MEP government took power, Minister Briesen dropped this group and selected another one for reasons that are not yet very clear.

Many observers believe that if Aruba was with Everett Clay Associates as partners during the dark months of the missing Alabama student, they would have surely done a better job of defending Aruba. It can still be recalled the questions of many people during June and July 2005, who wanted to know where were those in the U.S. to defend Aruba.

After Minister Briesen dropped Everett Clay Associates, they went to do promotion work for Jamaica. Now the fruits of their success can be seen.

Jamaica is also happy with the aggressive work of Everett Clay Associates and also of their Tourism Agency. For the month of November alone, Jamaica experienced an increase of 25.4%
The American press also reported on this extensively on Tuesday, and it could also be seen on CNN.

As for Aruba? Apparently, the government is so shocked at the statistics of the second half of 2005 that there are still no ‘official’ statistics produced by the Aruba Tourism Authority, and this even started to receive criticism from different local institutions. Perhaps MEP has thought to come out with the ‘statistic eating virus’ joke again?