MONTEGO BAY, St James — Hotel rooms booked solid, even at higher rates, and many businesses in western parishes getting a share of money spent by patrons of what has been dubbed a record-breaking Reggae Sumfest have left the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) very pleased.

“Every hotel was completely sold out for the festival. I mean, hotels, villas, Airbnbs. I can take it a step further, transportation companies, craft vendors, vendors of all kinds, all the major bars, restaurants, attractions, everyone really felt the impact. We can agree this was a record-breaking crowd, especially from the Friday night,” said JHTA Second Vice-President Kerry Ann Quallo Casserly, who also chairs JHTA’s Montego Bay Chapter.

“It was quite fruitful. The economy of Montego Bay benefited tremendously. We are hopeful that we’ll have many more events such as these across Jamaica because you can see how having a powerful brand in terms of an event can really pull visitors, can really give an uptick in the arrivals to the destination,” she added.

Quallo Casserly noted that in addition to properties from Hanover to Ocho Rios in St Ann seeing an uptick in occupancy levels, they were also able to command higher prices.

“The higher rates were anticipated, and clients actually booked their accommodations, as such [these are] higher categories. It’s about an experience,” she said.

She drew parallels between the levels of accommodation and the tiers of tickets for the July 13-19 event at Catherine Hall Entertainment Complex.

“Each area was jam-packed, at maximum capacity. What it tells us — and we’re seeing it also in the hotel sector — is that people are looking for an experience, and they’re willing to pay for an experience,” said Quallo Casserly.

She said visitors who came to Jamaica for the annual musical festival dubbed the ‘Greatest Reggae Show on Earth’ were drawn mainly from the United States, with many also from Canada, UK, and continental Europe.

“It was quite interesting, and it is definitely what we want to see. Jamaica was on the global stage,” she said.

Speaking with the Jamaica Observer inside the Jamaica Tourist Board’s Exclusive VIP Skybox on Night 2 at Catherine Hall Entertainment Complex, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett expressed similar sentiments.

“The impact on the economy we will know shortly as we do the calculations based on our exit polls that are conducted after events like these. But certainly the number of hotel rooms that would have been impacted all the way from Ocho Rios to Negril, and the level of local players who benefited from it — the small entrepreneurs selling street food and selling condiments, drinks and so on. And then inside of the space in here was the number of concessionaires with food stalls… I visited the artisan village to see artisans displaying their wares and exchanging value for money,” he said.

“I want to say congratulations to DownSound and Joe Bogdanovich for bringing this new dimension to Reggae Sumfest,” the minister added.

However, the level of enthusiasm displayed by the minister and Quallo Casserly was not shared by Negril hotelier Richard Wallace. He was concerned that many of the smaller hotels in his area did not feel the impact of the festival. According to Wallace, they are now looking forward Dream Weekend 2025, scheduled for August 1 to 5.

“Based on the reports I got we didn’t get much of a boost from Sumfest but we [are] looking forward to Dream coming up. The large all-inclusives are doing okay but Negril has a lot of small hotels and we [are] not feeling the boom down here like I hear MoBay, Trelawny, and Hanover had. Maybe one and two but not like it used to be,” he said.

Wallace attributed this to the distance from Montego Bay and heavy traffic between the two resort areas, which he said can take hours and often discourages visitors. However, he noted that Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has indicated that this issue will soon be addressed. Plans for bypasses that will take traffic off Hopewell and Lucea have been announced as a solution to the traffic jam between Negril and Montego Bay.