ST CATHERINE-BASED family fun park Dacosta Farms and Attractions shuttered its doors on Tuesday with the company telling the Jamaica Observer that the action was spurred by it being unable to earn enough from dwindling clientele to keep open.

“Since COVID, the business has been in a nosedive,” Dave Dacosta, founder and owner of Dacosta Farms and Attractions, told the Business Observer. “I couldn’t recoup the rising costs I was facing because I was down in the hole. I borrowed a lot of money to keep the business going, but unfortunately, now I have to make a choice — either it goes or I go down with it, and I don’t want to go down with it.”

The attraction, which is located at Hill Run, between Spanish Town and Portmore, is registered as a tourist attraction but gets most of its patrons from the two St Catherine towns and Kingston. He said for those who visit, “it is their Disney World and resort”. Most are returning customers who he admits will be disappointed.

Dacosta said before COVID-19 the location attracted about 700 people on average, each weekend day — Saturday and Sunday — to cover the cost of operating overall since it opened 10 years ago. Dacosta Farms and Attractions operated from Wednesday to Sunday and offered activities such as dune buggy driving, a water park, paintball shooting, roller coaster rides, and train rides as well as a bar and grill on the 86-acre property. In the past, the area, which was an old fish farm, allowed patrons to practise their fishing skills with the catch either cooked and consumed at the location or taken home for a meal at a later time.

But Dacosta said since reopening fully two years ago, after the lifting of restrictions aimed at keeping the COVID-19 disease under control, fewer people are patronising the attraction.

“We need about 500 to 600 persons per weekend day to keep the doors open, and we not getting that,” Dacosta added. “I don’t know what’s causing that. It seems the people are having limited disposable income.”

It is the second attraction to close its doors in recent times, the other being the Negril-based Kool Runnings. A notice on social media indicated that it was closed permanently. Efforts to reach that attraction for comments proved futile, though online it was listed as still operating and is scheduled to open at 10:00 am Wednesday.

The closure of Dacosta Farms and Attractions puts 31 people out of work. Dacosta said though “it hurts my heart to close the property”, he “couldn’t afford to keep it open anymore”, having used up all his credit line with the bank.

“It put me in a real jam. I am going to sell part of the property to repay the debt and move forward. I never expected it to put me in such a hole,” he said as he revealed the debt the property is in amounts to “about $50 million”.

“I want to get back on track as quickly as possible, because no way we can start another business while owing the bank. We not going to get no money to borrow. It’s a sticky situation. People see it running and think that you are making money, but they don’t know the expenses. The insurance is so high, everything is so high. I really can’t explain. I was just trying and trying and hoping for better, but it’s not happening,” he continued.

Dacosta admits that when patron numbers were better, the business was doing good and paying the bills.

“It’s not something that you can get rich out of, but it paid the bills…but things like security costs was too high for us. If the attraction was smaller and didn’t have the high overheads with electricity and security that the tourism authorities asked us to have to keep the place running, we could have survived.”

He said he pleaded with the tourism authorities for help, and to even have it listed among the itineraries for cruise passengers visiting nearby Port Royal, but to no avail.

Monday, April 1 was the last day it was opened to the public. On that day, Dacosta said about 220 people visited, which is half what is needed to keep the doors open. The revenue earned from them he said is just enough to cover staff costs with other expenses taken care of through loans or personal resources.

As he reflected on a decade of work he told the Business Observer, “It was good when it was good. But sometimes you have to move on. It’s hard to say, but you have to move on.”