http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica

"An estimated 1.3 million foreign tourists visit Jamaica every year" would mean the 2 million tourists coming each year would be incorrect.

Also at $1,000 per person being spent, that's hardly life changing when it comes to infrastructure.

Like Rob said, there is a LOT of overhead when it comes to a country, not to mention that the 1.3 million tourists is for ALL of Jamaica, not just Negril.

Just curious gerry, where are you getting your numbers from? If each person is only spending $1,000 including hotel/airfare almost none of it is actually being spent in Jamaica.

Jamaica by a lot of standards is still considered a VERY poor country even when you account for Tourism based on the number of people living in Jamaica.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...%29_per_capita

To put 2 million visitors into perspective, look at the World Tourism Rankings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Tourism_rankings

Being in the retail business this thread reminds me of people that complain about the price of a $2.95 birthday card and then complain that it's $3.13 with tax(6% in MD).

A $2.95 card costs me $1.475+SHIPPING,my overhead is massive, and the number of people buying cards is on a decline.

The odds of me breaking even or making a small profit are extremely slim to none, and most customers buy their card and go on their way. But then there is always one or two guys that need me to explain to them why a card is $2.95 and why I'll probably never see a dime of that.

Money is a fickle thing, the more money that is pumped into a system doesn't translate into better services, heck if you look at the Olympics they're spending over $50 BILLION dollars on the event and they couldn't even be prepared for a one off event with hotels half finished, plumbing that doesn't work, and massive corruption at every level.

http://xkcd.com/980/huge/#x=-6432&y=-6880&z=2

If you're interested at a look of money based on scale, an interesting fact is that most people aren't capable of processing a billion dollars or a trillion dollars in their brain other than as an abstract concept.