Founder and chief executive officer of Hah-R-Mony Entertainment, a local-based entity geared mainly towards providing services in the hospitality sector, Ho-Chi-Min Castillo Rolffot, has rubbished claims that the entertainment scene in Jamaican hotels is being taken over by foreigners.

In a recent interview with the Jamaica Observer, Castillo Rolffot argued that despite what is being put out in certain circles, the reality is that Jamaicans dominate the entertainment scene in the local hospitality sector with foreigners making up a tiny sum.

“People don’t know what’s happening inside of the hotel or even the reality of the hotel. If you calculate the amount of foreigners that work in the entertainment industry, it’s like two per cent for foreigners in the hotels,” said Castillo Rolffot.

“When you go to a hotel you will find out from the entertainment manager, and almost everybody, that 99 per cent of the entertainment is local,” asserted Castillo Rolffot.

Over the years there have been calls for the regulation as it relates to the perceived intrusion of foreign talent coming into the industry and taking over from Jamaicans.

But Castillo Rolffot was adamant that is not the case. He charged that overseas talent is usually brought in to fill a specific need.

“Whatever foreigners we have here is because we cannot source it in Jamaica. You think we would be spending money for work permits when we could people from here, impossible, I would not do that ever.

“That is general is hospitality, not just us. Others in hospitality, they have to bring people from abroad,” added Castillo Rolffot.

He told the Observer that his entity, which he described as the largest such enterprise in Jamaica, provides unique offerings that are not readily available in the country’s entertainment sector.

“They have several shows that we do because we have different types of things that you cannot find here in Jamaica like the synchronise aquatic ballet, formal shows like Broadway that nobody else does, just us,” he said.

According to Castillo Rolffot that has led to a sort of misconception about a disparity between locals and expatriates who work in the hospitality sector.

“They have a very wrong perception of the reality. All the hotels that we work, they have reggae bands, mento band, they have a lot of local talent working,” said Castillo Rolffot as he declared that his company hires more Jamaicans than foreigners.

“We have around 100 locals with around 85 expatriates right now,” he disclosed.

“We have people from…Guyana, St Lucia, St Martin, Trinidad, we work in the entire Caribbean, not just here,” added Castillo Rolffot

He pointed out that his company has also been sending Jamaican entertainers overseas, “so that is something that must be understood. We send Jamaicans to Bahamas, we send people to other countries too that’s why I say people don’t know the entire side of the story,” declared Castillo Rolffot.

The entertainment company executive said he has issues holding on to Jamaican talent because as soon as they get established, they are snapped up by other entities.

“Right now we are in the process of recruiting new talent but, the point is after you train them, the hoteliers take them immediately to work with them. Some of them move on because they have the capacity and the reality is that the hoteliers [are] going to be paying better than us and what they do is try to recruit them immediately,” he said.

“Some have gone away and worked with the New York Ballet, some of them were in the Lion King in London,” he added.

Castillo Rolffot said his company houses most of its Jamaica-based foreign employees in Montego Bay, St James, with accommodation also provided for the local entertainers, with several other Jamaicans benefiting from its investment.

“Our property has staffing, I have security, I have drivers, I have housekeeping, I have cooks, I mean, it’s an hotel working for a group of artists. Banks, other places benefit and they are all Jamaican,” declared Castillo Rolffot.

He charged that what has been happening is that there are some people who are not happy with what he has been able to accomplish over the years.

“Another company had the contract with a major hotel chain here and when they lost the contract, they started coming with the claim that they gave the business to foreigners thinking we were doing just foreigner things but no, we were working with locals”.

According to Castillo Rolffot, there has been some criticism over his company refusal to join a local entertainment collective but he has not joined the group because he believes this could lead to a disruption in the industry.

“They want us to join them which could raise all the prices in the hotel industry. We cannot do that and if they continue to try and do that, what will happen is the hotelier has the right to say, ‘I don’t want to use a band’ and then who is going to suffer, the artists who will be out of jobs,” said Castillo Rolffot.

He argued that instead of focusing on the foreigners coming in, critics should look at how they can benefit from an industry which is short of entertainment talent.

“Jamaica right now has 250 hotels, large hotels and you only have two saxophonists to play in the 250 hotels, you have one opera singer to play in 250 hotels, you have four violinists… they need more,” Castillo Rolffot declared.