Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett (3rd left) prepares to cut the ribbon to officially open Kool Runnings Water Park on Sunday. Also participating (from left) are: managing director, Dr Garfield Munroe; general manager, Donald Nam; tourism shadow minister, Dr Wykeham McNeil; a representative of sponsor Mitsubishi Motors and president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) Wayne Cummings. /Photo: Keril Wright.

Negril, Westmoreland

Government will announce the development of a fifth cruise shipping port in the Negril area by mid-2008, as it seeks to establish the sleepy little resort's potential as a port of call, Minister of Tourism Ed Bartlett disclosed on the weekend.

Speaking to a gathering of tourism officials and other industry players.at the grand opening of the Kool Runnings Water Park in the resort, Bartlett said he had already met with two sets of investors who had shown an interest in the shipping port which will be established between Negril and neighbouring Green Island.

Bartlett also lauded Kool Runnings, which he described as a major attraction that had the potential to be a major drawing card for visitors to the island.

"Kool Runnings offers a new dimension to attractions development in the Negril area," he noted. "We don't have signature attractions that by themselves bring people to Jamaica and this particular one, Kool Runnings, has the potential to do that," he said.

Reiterating the familiar theme that attractions are a critical part of the development of the tourism product expected to propel Jamaica into the higher end tourism market and help the country achieve its 2020 goals of greater stopover arrivals and increased spending per visitor, he concluded that developers of large and signature attractions could expect incentives from the government, which had already moved to establish a unit in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) to deal with cutting red tape that often makes it hard for investors to get their projects off the ground.

"We are hoping that the regime will come into place for the 90-day turnaround," he stated. "We want to ensure that the red tape is removed and the red carpet is replaced," he said.

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