MINISTER of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia “Babsy” Grange will be meeting with Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett to see how they can convince investors to provide more rooms in Kingston to accommodate the large and growing number of visitors who flock the island for carnival week.

Carnival week featured a series of parties and events which ended on Sunday with the carnival road march. Thousands of patrons flocked each event, expensive as some of them were.

Minister Grange — who attended a few of the events, including Wi Fete on Saturday at Sabina Park in Kingston and the road march the following day — told the Jamaica Observer that Jamaica will soon begin to rival Trinidad when it comes to hosting carnival. As a result, there is an urgent need for hotels and spaces to accommodate the anticipated influx of visitors to Kingston.

“Carnival in Jamaica is growing and is growing rapidly. It is impacting on the economy and it’s really creating a demand for more rooms in Kingston. And especially with Machel Montano and the connection now where it is almost a grand link-up with the Caribbean? Carnival in Jamaica can only get stronger.

“We need more rooms because we’re going to need to provide a lot more offerings outside of just carnival day. There are many attractions we are going to have to create because we have people coming from all over the world and from the Caribbean as well. I think carnival in Jamaica will rival carnival in Trinidad. With our fusion of soca and reggae, we have two great genres that we can offer in a more substantial way than anywhere else in the world. Minister Bartlett and I work closely together and with carnival, reggae and dancehall — we’ll build that brand. We will also be able to say we are contributing tremendously to the economy and tourism,” Grange told the Observer.

Further, senior strategist in the Ministry of Tourism Delano Seiveright told the Observer that carnival in Jamaica led to hotels, Airbnbs and other shared booking platforms in Kingston and St Andrew coming close to being 100 per cent booked out.

“Yes, carnival bookings certainly from Wednesday of last week to Monday [contributed],” Seiveright said.

He added: “Carnival in Jamaica is a multimillion-dollar activity. This money goes into hotels, bars, Airbnb, taxi operators and other transportation operators, photographers, security, events management, vendors, hairdressers and other people in that stream of business that relates to carnival. This is significant for big businesses, but also micro businesses”.

Seiveright said that carnival was a success but pointed to a few challenges which have to be worked out going forward.

“Among them was high airfares. We had a challenge [regarding] the airport in Fort Lauderdale being out of commission on Thursday and much of Friday because of the flooding. Fort Lauderdale is a critical connecting point for many visitors from the diaspora and also people coming from the Caribbean who connect through Florida to get to Jamaica. Of course, there was also competition. There was a soca cruise event that took quite a bit of the numbers over a week ago, and that is something we have to take careful note of.”

The feedback from vendors at Wi Fete was testament to the growth of soca and carnival in Jamaica and the economic benefits attached to both.

Leo Allen, a vendor selling flags, horns and other items used by partygoers, travelled from May Pen in Clarendon to Sabina Park. After the event he said that he, “really and truly made a money. It’s a good look and next year a guh better. I hustle straight — at every dance and stage show — all over Jamaica”.

Everald Chambers, a vendor from Kingston, said the profit made from Wi Fete was “heavy” and showed gratitude to the patrons for being free-handed.

“Dem just spend and have a good time,” he remarked.

Visitors also gave carnival week outstanding reviews.

Niklas from Germany, in the best way he could, said Wi Fete was “great” and “amazing” and was already looking forward to next year’s staging.

Niklas’s French friend, Bierrick Laq, flew in just to experience what carnival was like in Jamaica and was really impressed. He expressed hope to find a wife in Jamaica.

The streets of Kingston and St Andrew were flooded with carnival revellers, many of whom spent thousands of dollars to attend the parties and the road marches.

One woman who attended most of the events, including the road march, said “the economy bathe”.

“Before carnival I owned one pair of sneakers for jogging. Because of carnival I bought one pair for feting purposes. I ended up owning four additional sneakers to attend different events during carnival week. The costume makers benefited, but the small businesses benefited greatly. Carnival made people go out and spend.”