The Ministry of Tourism plans to develop a luxury tourism market in the parish of St Thomas as part of a strategic push to diversify Jamaica’s tourism product by offering more high-end, community-based services.

Speaking to a panel of reporters recently during a Jamaica Observer Business Forum, portfolio minister Edmund Bartlett shared that the Government intends to execute a structured plan in the south-eastern parish that takes into account the topography of the parish, its natural assets, and the culture of the people.

“St Thomas is going to be an organised and structured destination. We completed the study on it and we have a full document on all the assets that are there, where they are located, and the geophysical arrangements that are there and the endowments as they are — the cultural pattern and everything,” the tourism minister stated.

“Even the geomorphology of the land we have done studies on to know what kind of buildings to go where,” he added.

According to the Ministry of Tourism’s Tourism Destination Development and Management Plan for the Parish of St Thomas, Jamaica, the parish is home to about 33 natural and cultural assets, including Blue Mountain Peak, Reggae Falls, Bath Fountain and Hotel, Morant Point Lighthouse, and Lyssons beach. While the parish offers a variety of accommodations, only three hotels are licensed by Tourism Product Development Company.

Custos of St Thomas Marcia Bennett, herself a hotel operator, told Business Observer in an interview that she would like to see at least two major hotel chains setting up operations in that parish, given its proximity to Norman Manley International Airport.

However, Bartlett — drawing a contrast with Jamaica’s more established tourism markets in Montego Bay, Ocho Rios and Negril, where development of the hospitality industry
grew up around the beachfront properties and created mass market appeal — pointed out that the plan for St Thomas is to “utilise the assets to the fullest benefit of the people, and to look at a less-dense type of tourism arrangement with more environmentally friendly arrangements, and also to utilise the vantage points to the maximum”. On this note he explained that construction of the Kingston to St Thomas highway was deliberate and strategic as it offers motorists and commuters the best views of the parish.

“It is the higher end of tourism product that is going to be in St Thomas,” Bartlett shared, noting that developing a luxury tourism product market will require some oversight and management.

“We’ve been looking at investment partners who can begin to set the tone for what we have planned,” he added.

The Tourism Development and Management Plan outlines that the parish suffers from inadequacy as it relates to road infrastructure, water distribution, Internet penetration, and sewage and waste management. Moreover, the document which was prepared by Ministry of Tourism, in collaboration with International Institute of Tourism Studies at George Washington University and Interplan Planning Consultants, estimates that the parish will need a total investment of US$746 million, with private investment amounting to US$508 million.

For 2030 the tourism ministry is targeting the creation of 4,170 new rooms, visitor spend of US$244 million, with tax contributions of US$22 million from St Thomas. In 2018 some 5,775 tourists stayed in the parish but the Government is aiming to attract 230,000 overnight tourists by 2030.

Minister Bartlett, however, pointed out that the southern parishes hold huge possibilities for further tourism development, including the cays south of Jamaica, Alligator Pond, and Treasure Beach. In fact, for the parish of St Andrew the Ministry of Tourism is considering expanding its Gastronomy Corridor programme — which stretches from Devon House to Papine — to create a Gastronomy District that stretches from Half Way Tree to Papine and then connects with Cross Roads.

“The other place I have looked at is Knutsford Boulevard, which is kind of Kingston’s hip strip. What I’d love to see, though, is not perhaps just a corridor but a zone — like from Half-Way-Tree to Papine. There are over a hundred restaurants on that stretch alone,” he explained.

He added: “Lady Musgrave is going to emerge as an interesting place in time for gastronomy and other experiences in entertainment. You can see it emerging with CRU [Bar] there and CPJ and 80 and TGI Fridays. And now you have Mystic Thai and AC Marriott [Kingston].”

In the meantime, director of Jamaica Tourist Board Donovan White shared with Business Observer that the agency continues to explore development opportunities in St Elizabeth, and in particular Treasure Beach.

“The south coast, as we call it in terms of our tourism product, has been a growing space for us and we have seen more and more opportunities to create excitement around the region for tourists to be attracted,” he stated,

Highlighting the Calabash Literary Festival as a key event that pulls tourists to that section of the island, White said the JTB has added its sponsorship to the biennial festival because “it gets more international coverage than any other event in Jamaica by far, and that also is tied to the Jake’s Off Road Triathlon which is the oldest-running [off-road] triathlon in the world.

“What those things do is create a different kind of product offering for different types of travellers around the world. We see, for example, a lot of European and Asian tourists wanting that kind of product — it’s low density, it’s a more rustic-luxury product and offers the opportunity to engage with the environment and with the communities,” the JTB director continued.

While plans to develop the tourism product of the eastern and southern parishes are still in the early stages he said the implementation of those plans will require policy positioning and so will need to be handled by Minister Bartlett.