Three Caribbean competitors enjoyed prosperous 1996 tourist seasons, in comparison to 1995, but are facing concerns similar to those here in Bermuda, including casinos and super liners.

The news comes in the August issue of the Latin America Monitor -- one of 14 regional monthly business reports prepared by Business Monitor International Ltd.

Jamaica enjoyed an 8.8 percent increase of 658,200 cruise ship visitors but overall tourism "marked time'' with the number of air arrivals increasing by only 1.3 percent to 1,162,500 visitors.

Meanwhile, Tourism Minister Francis Tulloch has announced that he will press the Jamaican government to legalise casinos -- which are currently banned there as in Bermuda -- in an attempt to drum up business. The main opposition in the past has come from church leaders who have persuaded governments to resist deregulation of gambling. To further encourage air arrivals, a marketing cooperation agreement has been signed between Air Jamaica and Delta Airlines. In Barbados, total arrivals rose by 3.3 percent with cruise visitors climbing five percent to almost 510,000. Air arrivals climbed 1.4 percent to 447,100.

The tourism growth has also caused the unemployment rate to fall to 15.9 percent for the first quarter of 1997. But new super-liners, which are set to begin entering service in 1998 with their capacities of over 3,000 passengers, have caused fears of port and shopping facilities being overwhelmed on the small islands as well as having an adverse environmental impact, reported tourism minister Billie Miller.

Elsewhere, the Bahamas experienced "robust growth'' in 1996 with air arrivals climbing to 1,620,000 -- a rise of 2.2 percent. And the number of cruise passengers jumped 9.2 percent to 1,690,000 taking the total number of visitor arrivals up 5.5 percent to 3,420,000.

Average hotel occupancy rose to 68 percent from 66 percent and the average hotel room rate increased 14 percent to US$94 per night. The trend continued into the first quarter of this year with visitor figures up 7.7 percent over the same period the year before.