SANDY BAY, Hanover — Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic Chukka Adventures attractions, including its new nature adventure park in Hanover, Ocean Outpost at Sandy Bay which was officially reopened last week following the first phase of a US$3-million renovation, is now attracting a record number of fun-seeking locals.

“An exciting development is we are seeing much more locals coming out again to enjoy their country. We are seeing locals at a level we have never seen before, and it is amazing seeing Jamaicans coming and saying we didn’t know this was here. It’s really a fulfilling part of what we do. We used to get locals [prior to COVID-19] but we never got the level that we are seeing now,” shared the company’s executive director, John Byles.

“Jamaicans that are not travelling and are choosing to stay here, they are coming out; they want to see their country, they want to enjoy what we have to offer. Caribbean people are used to going to amusement parks because they think it is something international and foreign maybe, but what we are offering here is in their backyard.”

Byles argued that since the COVID-19 pandemic individuals are now showing a greater appreciation for nature, which he claimed is a part of Chukka’s DNA.

“What we find coming out of COVID-19 in this year is a greater appreciation for nature, for people to get out into unencumbered views and fresh air. And we don’t think it is going to stop after COVID. It’s something that has accelerated – an appreciation – and we are seeing a disproportionate number of people wanting, when they get out of wherever they are coming from, to get and up and experience the authentic, genuine aspects of what we are and who we are. People buy vacations to experience sovereign nations or destinations,” Byles expressed. “They do come to hotels for great service, great investments, sun, sea and sand. Right after that – if they don’t want to cheat themselves and get what they paid for – they leave the hotel and they come out and experience Jamaica, Barbados, Belize, Turks and Caicos, it doesn’t matter. That’s what we are offering.”

Chukka Adventures attractions are among the favourite stamping grounds for stopover visitors and cruise passengers alike, and Marc Melville, chief executive officer at Chukka Adventures, is welcoming the recovery of business which was stagnated as a result of the pandemic, resulting in the crippling of their niche market.

“Luckily for Chukka, our sales channels are not just one. So, yes, cruise is being delayed for maybe until the end of January and as they roll out their deployment of ships and their safety protocols, etcetera, we have good resort business coming, we have good villa business coming, groups are starting to come back slowly and show interest. Oh yes, we have been affected…no doubt, but we don’t just stand on one stream of business,” Melville said.

Chukka’s Ocean Outpost at Sandy Bay is among the list of attractions operated by the company in Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos Islands, Belize and more recently, Barbados.

“Sandy Bay is ideally located between Negril and Montego Bay. Between Negril and MoBay this is a perfect spot to be,” said Melville.

Ocean Outpost offers the added attraction of a unique leisure infrastructure, with catamarans sailing the Hanover seacoast, diving, snorkelling and riding in the ocean on horseback. There are also two rivers and springs on the property.

Speaking during last week’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett said “the money spent on remodeling and reinventing this experience to make it COVID-19-compliant and to put it in a positon where it could stand with other attractions of the world and where the new visitors would want to go, was well spent”.

Bartlett was particularly happy for the investment, which he said came at “a very difficult time.

“As a destination, giving confidence to investors is what Jamaica is all about,” stated the tourism minister.

Melville committed to continuing the company’s investment in Chukka’s Ocean Outpost at Sandy Bay, underscoring that over the next year and a half the company will add to the $3-million first-phase upgrade.

“The investment we have here is over US3 million, and that’s phase one. And there is continued investment over the next 36 months to really unlock the value that this vast, beautiful property that starts at the sea and ends at the mountain has,” said the CEO.

“In the middle of this, many people would have stopped investing. The investment comes out of hope and confidence – and it is the hope and confidence that we received from the leadership at the time, thriving and knowing that we were going in the right direction, that allowed us to go against the tide, put our money where our mouth is and built out the investment that we have here today [Thursday].”

The tourism minister observed that the architectural arrangement of the attraction provided for groups in the types of numbers that make it safe for visitors “to find their own bubble and to experience the beauty, the joy and the adrenaline rush that is required, as they seek to satisfy their own passions”.