WESTERN BUREAU – Vendors at the craft market in Montego Bay continue to complain of poor sales despite promises from tourism officials that efforts would be made to have more cruise passengers visit the market at Harbour Street in the city.

Melody Haughton, president of the Harbour Street Craft Market Association, told the Observer that following a craft vendors’ protest at the entrance of the cruise ship terminal in the city last October, her association’s members received an undertaking from Tourism Minister Aloun Assamba and her deputy Wykeham McNeill that efforts would be made to get more cruise passengers to visit the market. But even with a reported increase in cruise ship passengers to the island, that has not materialised, she complained.

According to Haughton, most of the tourists end up at the inbond stores at Montego Bay’s City Centre plaza.

“Most of the business goes to the City Centre. Before they send them (tourists) down to the craft market, they send them to the City Centre first. When they do the tours like that and when the visitors finally reach here they are mad, she said.

Added she: “After coming here, most of the visitors regret going to the City Centre first because they are here to see not only craft items, they are also meeting and greeting with the Jamaica people.”

Were it not for a handful of hotels like the Wyndham Rose Hall, Sandals Montego Bay and Holiday Inn, Haughton said, some shops at the market would have been forced to close by now.

“Even when business is slow for them, we can depend on them to send even one visitor,” Haughton said.

But despite the slow sales, she said, there was a 95 per cent compliance rate with the payment of market fees to the St James Parish Council. It was a sacrifice for many craft traders to keep up with their rent because of the slow sales, she said.

Meanwhile there are plans afoot for the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) to develop the facility into a more visitor-friendly entity. TPDCo chairman Michael Muirhead said the company was currently undertaking a comprehensive plan to evaluate common problems at the market with a view to find solutions to tackle the problems there. The move, he said, would be duplicated across the island, with the Negril craft market now serving as a pilot project.

He was unable to give a time line for the islandwide project, but said that it should see the skills of vendors and the quality of the products in the market improving. Only recently, he added, a number of Vietnamese craftsmen were in the island training local traders in Bamboo craft. Those who learned the skill,, he said, will now train others.

“It is a big challenge that we have. But it is something that we are embarking on – making them into real business enterprises. We have the assistance of Jamaica Business Development Centre and we are going ahead together to do it,” the TPDCo chairman noted, adding that the Negril project should be completed by August, depending on the availability of funds.

“We are trying to complete the project, probably at the end of July or in August because we may have some funding in place to do it… Funding is what is restraining us right now,” he said.