ROSE HALL, St James – The highly anticipated Tourism Entertainment Academy planned for Montego Bay appears a bit closer to reality. The architectural drawings for the $50-million project are now well advanced.

“In the business of building out capacity for entertainment, we are in the final stages of designing the entertainment academy for the tourism sector. And that academy is going to be built on the property of the Convention Centre — that’s where the thinking is at the moment,” said Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett.

He was fielding questions from local and international journalists at a Jamaica Product Exchange (Japex) media breakfast held at the Jewel Grande Montego Bay Resort & Spa on Tuesday. Bartlett noted that the facility will provide opportunities for entertainers in the tourism sector to hone their craft.

“It will offer an opportunity for us to be able to give wider exposure to the entertainers that are going to be inserted in the tourism industry. And to, more importantly, enable them to have more tourism-specific type of entertainment,” he explained.

“You know, it’s not everything that is done in the entertainment space that is particularly touristic. And so, every industry has to [put in place] appropriate entertainment to satisfy the varying needs of the visitors who come from all over the world,” added the minister.

During his contribution to the 2022/23 Budget Debate in March, Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced that the Tourism Enhancement Fund would bankroll the project which will be marketed as an attraction for visitors to experience Jamaica’s authentic cultural offerings.

However, cabaret singer Mackie Conscious has expressed reservations. He believes the tourism ministry should instead focus on ensuring that international investors in local hotels give local acts an opportunity to eke out a living by consistently performing at their properties.

“In my time in a hotel, a band works six times a week…presenting Jamaican music, reggae music. Now bands [are] working one night and two nights. That is what they should address! Entertainers in Jamaica don’t have jobs because is one and two nights they have in hotels. When they sell the hotels to foreigners do they mandate them to make sure that you hire Jamaican entertainers?” the veteran crooner told Observer West when asked for a response.

However, the tourism minister stressed the need to keep up with the changing needs of the marketplace.

“We recognise that the industry has evolved away from what it was in the old days when it was rumba only and so on. It is a little beyond that now. The rumba is going to be involved yes, it’s a part of the offering and financing will also be a part of the process. But we are going to have to look at what are the new profiles of the market and what it is that these new visitors are seeking for optimal entertainment — and to provide it,” Bartlett said.