The Government has slashed the allocation for the overseas promotion of tourism despite repeated claims that this is one of the industries which could help the country out of its current financial quagmire.

That is part of an overall cut to the Edmund Bartlett-led tourism ministry which was one of the few growth sectors last year.

The provision for the overseas marketing of Brand Jamaica has been reduced to $805 million, down from $1.6 billion last year.

There is no explanation in the estimates for the cut but the Bruce Golding administration made it clear that tourism remains a key plank of its economic programme.

"The estimated gross earnings for the tourism industry in 2008-2009 financial year are US$1.998 billion ,with total visitor stopovers of 2.8 million," the administration says in the Estimates of Expenditure tabled in Parliament yesterday.

"Gross earnings for 2009-2010 are projected at US$2.22 billion, an 11.2 per cent increase," the administration adds.

While projecting a 12 per cent increase in stopover arrivals for this year, the administration is bracing for a 3.2 per cent drop in cruise visitors.

Recurrent budget reduced

But that did not stop the administration from reducing the recurrent budget for the tourism ministry to $2.1 billion, down from $2.85 billion last year.

In addition to having less to spend on day-to-day expenses, Bartlett will have to make do with no money for capital spending.

After giving the tourism ministry $53 million last year, the administration reduced that to zero this time around.

This means there is no provision for beautification projects which were granted $20 million last year and no money for the sustainable environmental and tourism projects which were granted $8.7 million last year.

In addition, $8 million which was allocated for the anti-harassment programme last year has been taken away and the $1.3 million allocated to the South Coast Sustainable Development project has been cut.

Yesterday, government officials said an explanation of the changes would be provided by Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett in Parliament.