FALMOUTH, Trelawny – FORMER Cabinet minister Arnold Bertram has warned that if the development of the tourism product in Falmouth only benefits a few interests, the town will not achieve genuine prosperity.

“You have people who are talking about tourism and redeveloping Falmouth. Let me just put a word of warning. You cannot redevelop Falmouth in 2011 to what it was in the 1800s if it’s only going to serve the interest of a handful of people,” said Bertram.

He noted that between 1790 and 1840 when Falmouth was prosperous, it was a mere 10 families who enjoyed the wealth created in the town as a result of a sugar industry which was driven by slavery.

“This time around, it has to be different and when we speak of tourism — a way has to be found to make it more inclusive,” he warned.

Bertram was the guest lecturerer at the inaugural Roylan Barrett Memorial Lecture series on the ‘History of Falmouth’ held inside the Falmouth Town Hall recently.

The lecture series is the initiative of the board of governors, staff and students of the Holland High School.

The late Roylan Barrett, a renowned historian, served as custos of Trelawny for 18 years before dying of renal failure in the Kingston Public Hospital over a year ago.

Bertram noted that the “old natural resource economy” can no longer work, “where we just produce sugar and bananas.

“The world price of sugar is nine cents and up to last year it was costing Jamaica 27 cents a pound to make sugar.”

Noting that the margins on agricultural commodities are too small to create wealth, Bertram argued that the “whole world is moving to what you call service economies such as tourism services, financial services, computer services along with the production of agricultural commodities”.

“But you can’t have a service economy without a first-class education system rooted in modern technology,” he was quick to point out.

Bertram in underscoring the need for the tourism product to be all-embracing, explained that the arrival of cruise passengers to Falmouth is but a portion of the Roy Barrett’s holistic vision.

“Falmouth’s vision is much wider vision. The pier is one plank of it. For the pier to create wealth for Falmouth it has to be inclusive. People from here some providing transportation, some doing this, and some doing that and at the same time it has to have foundation in education and training,” Bertram remarked.

“And then now Roy’s holistic vision where you begin to see the extent to which Falmouth can provide an example for the rest of Jamaica as to how you can integrate an economy that is based on services, as well as the surrounding areas providing commodities. If the tourist in Falmouth don’t eat what southern Trelawny produces, the parish cannot be economically viable”.