TREASURE BEACH, St Elizabeth — It has evolved over the years from a sleepy fishing village to the classic exemplar of community tourism in modern Jamaica.

Today, Treasure Beach, located close to the most southerly tip of St Elizabeth’s farm-rich Pedro Plains, has its sights set on also showing the way in building a lucrative sports tourism subsector. Its dream of raking in tourism dollars through sport is centred on the Treasure Beach Sports Park on 15 acres of leased government land just north of Calabash Bay.

“We envision that in a few years it will be the leading sports park and academy in the Caribbean in terms of facilities, development and training of young sportsmen and women and very importantly, in terms of attracting sporting teams from overseas,” says Jason Henzell, hotelier and community activist.

Henzell heads Breds, the volunteer community organisation which runs the sports park and which has helped to transform lives in the Treasure Beach area through its outreach projects. He dreams of significant and rapid economic spin-offs from increased visitor numbers and occupancy levels in the Greater Treasure Beach area flowing directly from the development of the sports park and visits by sporting teams from around the globe.

“Currently, there are about 400 rooms (small hotels and villas) with an annualised occupancy level of about 25 per cent and we are hoping to increase those occupancy levels to 55 to 60 per cent within five years,” Henzell told the Jamaica Observer Central.

Since work began on the sports park in 2010, $30 million has been spent on the development of netball, basketball and tennis courts; a full-sized cricket field with three pitches; an irrigation well with a solar pumping system which has kept the cricket field lush even in the dry weather typical of southern St Elizabeth; bathrooms and changing rooms.

Ground was recently broken and work has started on a 2,400-square-foot pavilion sponsored by rum company Wray and Nephew. Adjacent to the cricket field, a full-sized football field is now under construction with support from sports drink brand Gatorade. Both projects are set to be completed in early 2013.

Once those are done, Henzell and Breds plan an additional pavilion built “to ICC (International Cricket Council) specifications”. He hopes that facility, which will double as a community centre and named in honour of the late Danny Buchanan, whom Henzell said was instrumental in ensuring government bought the land for the sports park and leased it to Breds.

Buchanan, who died early last year, served for many years as Member of Parliament for South West St Elizabeth and as Cabinet Minister.

“I told him (Buchanan) the land was for sale, he bought it within one week and leased it back to Breds for 50 years. In my mind, this is the perfect example of a public/private partnership,” said Henzell.

In furtherance of the public/private partnership ideal, Henzell plans to woo the State as well as corporate Jamaica to finance the project, which will include a clubhouse, a gymnasium, additional changing rooms as well as rooms for coaches, umpires, first-aid personnel and members of the media.

Henzell expects that by the end of 2014, another pavilion will also be built and dedicated to court games, along with additional tennis courts. This will be dedicated to the memory of the late Desmond Henry, a public relations and marketing specialist and one-time director of tourism who was native to Treasure Beach.

By then, Henzell says, “roughly $90 to $100 million” will have been spent in the development of a “world-class facility”.

“We are serious about sports and about tourism and you have to invest if you want to see the results,” he explained.

But even as the buildings go up, Henzell says the natural atmosphere of a park — with shade trees, grass and space for adults and children to relax and play — will be preserved. That natural, relaxed atmosphere was very much in evidence when the Observer Central visited in late November for the preliminary round of the TEF-sponsored Twenty/20 Jamaica Premier (cricket) league.

As the MoBay Fixers and the Mandeville Thunders, and later the University Dynamites versus the May Pen Earthquakes battled on the field, scores of visitors and locals mingled at the boundary’s edge on the southern side of the field, in the shadow of numerous trees, most notably the stately Lignum Vitae.

Their picture-perfect view was not just of cricket, but of the scenic highlands to the north.

Former Prime Minister of Jamaica PJ Patterson, a cricketer in his youth, who bowled a symbolic delivery prior to the clash between the Dynamites and the Earthquakes, was delighted with his first impressions of the sports park.

“This is a facility in an exquisite setting with all the features required for people to come and play cricket and for people to watch and enjoy …,” he said.

Patterson, who cut his “political teeth” in St Elizabeth as a young man, was quick to point to the possibilities for social and economic enhancement.

“First of all sports is a facilitator for social cohesion … and we have to recognise that sports is big business. Statistics show that 14 per cent of the global (travel) market is constituted from sport tourism. I think Jamaica has very special things to offer in that regard; in fact, so does the entire Caribbean,” said Patterson.

For that reason, Patterson gave the nod of approval to the TEF’s sponsorship of the Twenty/20 league. “We should never forget that when sugar was king that was a powerful influence behind the game of cricket in Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean. I see tourism as the key driver for economic development, a catalyst for growth, and I believe that the linkage with cricket and other sport activities are one to be exploited,” said Patterson.

“If we don’t, others will,” he warned.

The former prime minister, who five years ago led a high-profile committee in making sweeping recommendations for the radical overhaul of West Indies cricket, visualises communities like Treasure Beach cashing in on wealthy, cricket-mad migrant populations in North America.

“I would like to see us making a direct appeal to the markets in North America … we have Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans and our own Caribbean communities who brought with them a love, a passion, an interest in cricket,” said Patterson.

“I can see people from those areas, and even people from England, coming here and wanting to have a vacation, which include enjoying, participating and training for cricket and like activities. So I think that the linkage possibilities are tremendous,” he added.

Former president of the West Indies Cricket Board Pat Rousseau recalls that three to four decades ago it was customary for English county teams to visit Jamaica for winter training.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to bring them back,” said Rousseau.

Henzell and his team at Breds are already moving in that direction. He told Observer Central that Treasure Beach recently hosted executives of the UK-based Lashings cricket and football club as well as the cricket-based tour company, Top Order Tours.

“We showed them around and they are very impressed with what they saw,” said Henzell.