Mayor of May Pen Winston Maragh has stated that a “tourism package” is being developed for the parish of Clarendon, so that the area may become more inviting to visitors.

Speaking at the annual Bull Head Mountain Ash Wednesday Festival, the mayor told the

Jamaica Observer that he has a lot of plans for community tourism within the area and the Bull Head Mountain is a part of the municipal corporation’s plans to increase tourist interest.

“We have been looking for different tourism products and so we saw where Bull Head Mountain is just ready and ripe for the picking, and so we decide to invite Bull Head in our plans.”

He also said that these plans have been on the table for several years, however, the drive was not there initially to fully implement them, but under his leaderships, he hopes to push them forward. The package, however, will not be limited to Bull Head Mountain, but will include other locations within the parish.

“Some of the products we have been looking at, especially in the south coast, is in the area of residence. We have a lot of beaches down there and we just need to put in some trades. We have caves, the Portland Ridge … and everybody knows about the Milk River. And we also have the Alligator Hole down that fence where the manatees come up from time to time, so things like that we attempt to put them in a package so that we can invite tourists down into the area.

Local economic development officer at the Clarendon Municipal Council, Damion Young said that the festival is also a viable economic engine as it provides an opportunity for small farmers, vendors and traders to market their goods and improve upon their economic possibilities.

“We see and realise that it has the potential and is indeed a causing economic improvement in the lives of the people. The farmers in particular, we are really pleased about their involvement and the fact that we saw several of them taking their products here and the reality is that there stuff are going … it holds great potential and it will stimulate this very inner crevice of the parish of Clarendon and really generate hardcore economic activity here, undeniably,” Young said.

Young added that despite the challenges that existed over the past years, with the festival not getting the full support in terms of funding, the corporation, since its involvement, has taken steps towards making improvements such as garnering sponsorship from the BullHead Mountain Spring Water Company, which is currently its major sponsor.

He said that the corporation is not always able to invest but intends to create a suitable package to attract interest from potential stakeholders.

President of the Bull Head Mountain Benevolent Society Tracy-Ann Mahoney said that the Society wishes to make the mountain a viable entity within the ecotourism industry as it’s the only thing existing in the area that can be used as a means of livelihood for persons in the surrounding communities.

“In order to maintain the naturalness of the mountain, in order to enhance what is there and to cause visitors to want to come to the mountain, we want to create like hiking trails and engage the citizens in community policing to ensure that the visitors who come here on the hiking trail they would be safe and they would be kept safe by the citizens, who would also be gaining livelihood from this,” Mahoney said.

Mahoney said that because the mountain is the property of the Forestry Department, officials of the Society do not have the ability to implement their ideas without permission and, therefore, she wishes to engage in discussion with the Forestry Department for the mountain to become an economic entity for the citizens living in the communities.