Owner and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Chung says the fourth staging of the Discover Jamaica By Bike tour will provide what he describes as a significant boost to the country’s economy this year.

The event, set for April 30 to May 5, will see over 70 participants from around the world journey across the island for 400 miles to experience its views and activities through recreational cycling. The route will include Kingston, Port Antonio, Ocho Rios, Negril, and Mandeville.

Chung says the event will benefit locally-owned businesses in Jamaica, ultimately leading to an improvement in the overall economy.

“We started this during COVID-19 and the reason was to shine a spotlight on the tourism offering and support the local hotels and local vendors who were having a hard time,” he said. “I can say that this year, four hotels in four locations have been sold out because we do focus on the small, locally owned hotels and focus on the fruit vendors, coconuts vendors, locally owned restaurants — that really is our focus. In fact, we’ve gone on to seek accommodation at other places for persons interested in doing it.”

The event was also approved by the Jamaica Tourist Board, which Chung says speaks to its value on the local circuit.

“That for us means a lot because the tourist board would have done its assessment,” he said. “We’ve been working with them over the years, and they looked at the quality and impact the event has. This is six days and everybody who comes in, with additional family members or friends, they are spending money in Jamaica for six days and spending it where it matters with locally owned hotels, restaurants, vendors, the man on the street and so on; so we’re really getting people to be interacting the ordinary person out there and spending the money where it matters.”

Although the tour is in two months, Chung says arrangements for the event are well advanced.

“Everything has been put in place,” he said. “We’re happy with the development of the roads. The development has been very instrumental and is a positive for Jamaica because it opens up opportunities like these. The preparation has been going very well. We have the hotel bookings, the organisation for the event is there and we have sponsors who have already come on.”

Chung says Discover Jamaica By Bike wants to expand for next year but is more than satisfied with the expected cyclists this year.

“We have quite a number of participants from overseas coming in from Finland, UK, and the USA primarily, so we’re well on our way,” he said. “We’ll have about 70 persons on the ride itself because it’s a good amount for us. If you have 70 persons and the average spend per person is US$2,000 [about J$312,000], you are talking about quite a bit of money and people extend their stays outside the ride, with friends and family coming in. We really don’t want a lot more than that because we want it to be well controlled. Next year we’ll grow it further and go over 100 because we want to ensure everything runs properly and that we have a very controlled ride in terms of quality; quality for me is very important.”