MONTEGO BAY — CEO of Paymaster Jamaica, Audrey Marks is tipped to become the new chairman of the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo), according to a high-ranking source within the tourism ministry.

Marks, who changed the way Jamaicans pay their bills with the formation of her company Paymaster Jamaica, will replace Duke Holness, head of pharmaceutical giant Glaxo Smithkline Caribbean who has held the chairmanship at the state-run department of the tourism ministry since November 2000.

TPDCo now has 19 members on its board, including:

* former tourism director, Fay Pickersgill; director-general for the tourism ministry, Carole Guntley Brady, and hotelier James Samuels who represents the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association. Other members include:

* TPDCo executive director Karl Binger;

* Vana Taylor from the Jamaica Association of Villas and Attractions, John Gourzong from the Association of Jamaica Attractions.

* Allison Anderson from the health ministry and Lorna Perkins from the local government ministry;

* Representatives from the Montego Bay, Negril, Ocho Rios, Portland, South Coast and Kingston resort boards,

* and representatives from the police force, Cable and Wireless, the Institute of Sports and the Jamaica Federation of Musicians.

The new board is expected to have about the same number of members but there will be some changes in the way it does business.

For example, the current board now has all its meetings in Kingston, which has left some with the impression that there is a gap between its board members and the activities on the ground.

According to an insider, the new board will now have half of its meetings in resort areas across the island.

Attempts to get a comment from Marks on the approach she will take to the job were unsuccessful, but Montego Bay hotelier Godfery Dyer had some suggestions.

According to Dyer, TPDCo needs to stop taking on projects that are the mandate of other Government agencies and focus on the tourism product. It needs to be brought back under the full control of the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), he added.

“They should concentrate on product. For example the thing in front of the post office (the $4- million Montego Bay Urban Park) is a perfect example. That’s being done by TPDCo. Beautification, etc at different places is done by TPDCo. These are things which, in my opinion, should be done by parish councils or ministries of Government and not TPDCo,” he said. “TPDCo, in my opinion, should function as a department of the JTB and concentrate on standards of the product. That’s my feeling.”

A few years ago, TPDCo earned some flak for concentrating most of its attention on fixing sidewalks and verges — a role many saw as that of the local government bodies. In recent years, TPDCo has shifted much of its focus towards community tourism. It has been integrally involved in events such as various curry and jerk festivals across the island, and the Maroon celebrations at Accompong in St Elizabeth.

It has also spearheaded the thrust towards overhauling the craft industry and it has now implemented a $5-million grant programme for small hotels and attractions.

These activities, Dyer said, are the type of things they should be doing.

“The small hotel programme, nothing is wrong with that because they are helping to improve the product,” he said. “Developing attractions, yes, nothing is wrong with that but not infrastructual work. I just feel they should get out of infrastructural work.”