MONTEGO BAY, St James — Prime Minister Andrew Holness says it is troubling to his conscience that only some Jamaicans are benefiting from tourism earnings and pledged to put a strategy in place which will result in everyone making money from the sector.

At the end of December 2018, Jamaica reported the arrival of 4.31 million visitors and recorded earnings of US$3.3 billion, which represents an increase of 8.6 per cent over the US$3 billion in 2017.

“It is something that occupies my mind greatly and indeed it moves my conscience and I have had discussions with the minister (of tourism), we must find ways to make tourism inclusive and beneficial to all the people of Jamaica,” the prime minister said.

“Everyday when I meet with my Cabinet and the minister, I insist that the strategy for tourism must be to ensure that there is connectivity with the rest of the economy. The benefits of tourism must be shared with the people because all tourism is, if you take away the block and steel, the people. It is the culture, it is our music, it is our language, it is our dance, it is with all of that put together to form a package that distinguishes us from the rest of the world, that makes people want to come here and enjoy. So the industry must take an instrumental approach to ensuring that the benefits are shared by more Jamaicans, employ more Jamaican entertainers, put them in your package, make people see them because that is what is going to create the value for your product.”

The prime minister argued that “prosperity is only prosperous if it is shared”.

“ In other words we can’t just have the few elite selected connected persons benefiting. Every single Jamaican must benefit from the economic growth of this country.”

“Without question, the prosperity is being shared, more Jamaicans are employed today than at any other time in the history of the recorded statistics for Jamaica. And a job is the first way to share the prosperity. However, we need to do more, particularly with the tourism industry.”

He was speaking at the official opening of the S Hotel in Montego Bay along the Jimmy Cliff Boulevard, formerly Gloucester Avenue, Sunday evening.

Holness argued that the opening of the 120-room S Hotel by the Crissa Group, operators of the Spanish Court Hotel in Kingston, “is another significant investment and is part of the renaissance of our beloved hip strip in Montego Bay”, and can be intepreted as a demonstration of a level of confidence now being displayed by local investors.

“The recently revealed Survey of Business Confidence shows that 70 per cent of firms continue to agree that the time is right for investment. In addition and what is more pleasing to me is, 55 per cent of firms surveyed said that they will be making increased investments in their business in the next 12 months,” Holness stated.

He noted that among the reasons he accepted the invitation to attend the official opening of the facility was for the opportunity to drive home the point that Jamaica has incredible assets which are either not put to use or underutilised.

“This (building which houses S Hotel) asset for over a decade was unused, an incredible piece of our tourism history just laid there doing nothing, not adding to our growth, not employing; it was just there. Clearly, it took a businessman, an entrepreneur with initiative but someone who could take risks,” he undescored.

“In the coming months the Government will intensify its policy of full asset utilisation. We will be looking at all the assets in the Government’s portfolio and through a process that is competitive and transparent, we will be making them available to the private sector, to persons who demonstrate the drive, the interest the entrepreneurship, persons who are risk-takers to take these assets and make something of them for the people of Jamaica.”