Around this time of the year, business operators on Main Street in Ocho Rios, such as cosmetologist Arthur Knibbs, would have been earning more revenue from tourists arriving on ships while they roam the streets of the resort town.

However, the past two years have not been the same for Knibbs. In 2020, the ports were closed due to COVID-19 considerations, but they have reopened since October of this year and Knibbs was hopeful that things would have been back to the days of flourishing business. Not quite so, he told the Jamaica Observer, as, according to him, the visitors are being barred from making their rounds through the township, and the only question Knibbs has been asking is: Why are they keeping them away from us?

“What is wrong with Ocho Rios? I don’t understand why they are not coming here,” he questioned. “Right now we are stagnated because things are not happening as it is suppose to,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

The streets of Ocho Rios, starting from November, are usually crammed with foreigners making their rounds and, while doing so, supporting local vendors and small business operators.

“When they come in [tourists] KFC line long, people are in supermarkets grabbing stuff, others getting haircuts, hairdresser filled with girls getting their hair done, some drinking beers and the whole place busy,” Knibbs shared.

“This is an industry, so when they take that away from us what are we left to do? When the ship comes we have opportunities, but right now we have none because we not seeing them,” he added.

It is now a challenge, Knibbs voiced, for him and other business to keep afloat.

“We depend on the tourist industry because that is why we open all these businesses, especially tourist-driven businesses. So when we have all these goods and services to offer and no tourist is coming, then we will suffer because we still have to be paying rent, and such,” he said.

Since 2001, Knibbs has been operating in the resort town but the past two years have been the most devastating for business.

“It is an outcry for all of us because we are all suffering at this point because the thing slow. Them keeping the visitors from us changes up the whole season for us because we look forward to this time, and this is when things start picking up and we can make some money,” he told the Sunday Observer.

What is quite puzzling, he said, is the fact that the visitors enter through the port in Ocho Rios but are shuttled elsewhere.

“We are all the same people in Jamaica, so why is it an issue for them to come and do business with us? Why are they being sent away from us?” he continued. “Ocho Rios is not the worst. We are people here who need to make a living like everybody else.”

As the Yuletide season approaches an end, Knibbs is hoping that something can be done to favour small business operators in the upcoming year.

“Things need to change. Some form of preparation must be made for us here, because the industry is what we mostly depend on to make a living, too,” he said.