Travel firms count cost of Ivan

Jamaicans are finding out the true extent of devastation

UK travel firms are mounting a massive operation to retrieve holiday-makers from the path of Hurricane Ivan.

Travel insurance does not cover "acts of God", but UK firms are flying customers home at their own expense.

Experts say that a sustained dip in bookings is unlikely, but warn that some destinations could lose tourism business if the damage is severe.

The storm has already hit Grenada and Jamaica hard, and is battering the Cayman Islands en route to Cuba.

As many as 60 people are feared to have died so far, with as many as nine in ten homes in Grenada damaged.

Map showing the hurricane's likely path

In Jamaica a massive clean-up operation is under way, while almost all the Caymans' 45,000 residents and visitors are in shelters or caves as 20-foot (six metre) waves and ferocious winds batter the islands.

Evacuation

According to the Association of British Travel Agents, about 3,500 UK package tourists had been in Jamaica ahead of Ivan, and all but 850 had been flown home or to the Dominican Republic.

The rest, said ABTA spokesman Sean Tipton, had elected to stay, and tour operators had ensured they were staying in well-secured locations.

A similar operation was under way for several hundred holiday-makers in Cuba.

Based on past experience, Mr Tipton said, it was unlikely that future bookings would be too hard hit.

Jamaica was hit with vicious winds and torrential rain

"Admittedly, there's been nothing as bad as this in years, and I wouldn't say there'll be no effect," he told BBC News Online.

"But people tend to take the perspective that they are booking for next year, and to be fairly realistic about the fact that this is an exceptional occurrence."

Damage

Even so, from the tour operators' point of view there are costs to be borne, not only in terms of flying holiday-makers out of the path of the hurricane - but also in terms of the damage to infrastructure.

"None of our members own hotels or assets in the Caribbean," he said.

"But we don't know yet how much damage will be caused by this."

Tour operators may well have to leave resorts off their books for next year if either hotels - or the surrounding areas - are too badly damaged, he warned.

That could spell trouble in terms of lost business for the economies of the countries hit by the hurricane, just when they need the revenue the most.

Still, one of Jamaica's main resort areas - Montego Bay - has escaped relatively unscathed.

According to Horace Peterkin, general manager of the Sandals chain's Montego Bay operation, the buildings had suffered little structural damage.

The chain's main cost is likely to be its promise to give customers a free replacement holiday if their stay coincides with a hurricane.

PREDICTED PATH OF HURRICANE IVAN

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