Jamaica’s famous but beleaguered Bath Fountain Hotel and Spa in St Thomas is to get a $100-million upgrade, while the government pursues companion measures to rid the facility of visitor harassment, the tourism ministry has announced.

Believed to house one of the world’s most powerful and therapeutic mineral baths, the loss-making hotel has been hit by a growing swarm of touts who run a thriving parallel business in the hills above the state-owned resort in picturesque eastern St Thomas.

“Acknowledging the potential of Bath Fountain and Spa for development, the Tourism Enhancement Fund has allocated $100 million to undertake upgrading works of the hotel and spa,” Permanent Secretary Jennifer A Griffith told the Sunday Observer.

“We are now in the planning stages for the upgrading works (and) in the meantime, we continue to pursue avenues for addressing the harassment problem,” Griffith said in response to a Sunday Observer exposé last week showing that touts had overrun the hotel.

She confirmed the accuracy of newspaper’s report that sections of the property had been invaded by “young men from the community who encourage visitors to trek to an unsupervised section of the grounds, where they may bathe in water which escapes from the underground tanks that transport water from the source of the mineral spring to the baths”.

“These young men have positioned themselves strategically in front of the hotel and they approach every vehicle that comes up to the property, trying to convince visitors not to go into the hotel, but to go to that section of the property which they have claimed as their territory,” Griffith said.

She said their presence originated following extensive damage to the spa caused by Hurricane Gilbert. Pending rehabilitation of the property, a gap was created when there was no organised facility for persons who wanted to gain benefits from the therapeutic waters. Young men from the surrounding district designated themselves as guides, and would take visitors up the hillside overlooking the hotel, to an area where the escaping waters could be accessed.

Griffith said the Ministry of Tourism had spent millions of dollars to transform the property – which had long been licensed by the Jamaica Tourist Board – into a viable small boutique hotel and spa. And it had been receiving good local and foreign patronage.

“The activities of the young men from the community, however, remain a serious challenge,” she said.

The permanent secretary disclosed that Bath Corporation, which manages the property, had tried unsuccessfully to control the situation, by proposing that a gate be erected at the point where incoming guests were being intercepted. She blamed the St Thomas parish council for that failure.

“This aim was to prevent access to the foot bridge leading to the hillside water source. The Parish Council, however, denied permission for the erection of the gate at that pivotal spot. The Council recommended permission for the gate to be erected further into the hotel property, which afforded ample space for the young men to carry on their business,” Griffith complained.

But she said the Ministry of Tourism was still working with the Council to correct that situation and a senior representative of the Council now sat on the board of directors of Bath Corporation.

The permanent secretary also fingered the Bath police, saying the ministry had made “unsuccessful appeals” to the police to attend to the problems, and had since that included a senior level police representative on the board.

“The ministry is aware that any attempt to address the issue must proceed with the full involvement of the community,” added Griffith. “Bath Fountain Hotel and Spa is one of the biggest employers in the district of Bath. It also does a great deal of vertical integration, with members of the district providing agricultural produce, and enjoying indirect employment.

“The property also facilitates linkages with other sectors. This is the official training ground for persons in the area who aspire to go on the overseas hotel programme, and for those students doing internship from the vocational schools such as HEART/NTA. It is therefore in everybody’s interest that the facility remain viable.”

She said the hotel was previously scheduled for divestment, but had been taken off the divestment list because of a policy decision by the present administration to place greater emphasis on developing and marketing health and wellness tourism “which generates a high level of spend by visitors”.

“The current stance of the ministry is to ensure

that the tourism sector is able to deliver the clear potential of the health and wellness sector for generating jobs and promoting social development,” said Griffith.