SUCCESS, St James — Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has repeated a call for investors in the country’s tourism sector to make the local labour force their first source of workers so Jamaicans can share in the economic benefits.

“For example, our entertainers who complain bitterly that sometimes they are left out and not given their acknowledgement and the respect that they deserve. Everything must be done to ensure that our entertainers are an integral and supportive part of the tourism economy,” Holness urged.

“Whenever you hear about Jamaica, the next thing is reggae and Bob Marley, and you can’t separate those things from the product. It has to be in the product. Same thing with our taxi drivers; they’re a critical part of the product,” he added.

He was speaking Monday afternoon during a ground-breaking ceremony for construction of the 33-storey, 1,200-room Moon Palace The Grand. It is a US$700-million investment being done by Mexican developers in Success, St James.

Prime Minister Holness reaffirmed that Jamaica’s tourism development model will not exploit workers.

“We are not seeking cheap labour to create profit for capital. That’s not what we’re trying to do. We believe that we can use our labour to create value for which both labour and capital benefits. That’s the model. If you do it any other way — that is to exploit labour to make profits — then you set the political context for a struggle for labour to get more, and then what that drives is inflation,” he explained.

“What has happened to countries where there is a kind of exploitative model is that there is usually an inflationary issue, and so you find that the only way that wages increase is by an adjustment in wages,” the prime minister added.

Citing Singapore’s achievement of 3.3 per cent unemployment rate 47 years ago, Holness urged the maintenance of Jamaica’s near-full employment by addressing skills gaps. He said long-term low unemployment can lift incomes, build assets, and break intergenerational poverty, with tourism playing a central role in this growth.

“We need to ensure that we keep all our workers employed and, in fact, even bring down that unemployment rate a little bit more. You probably can’t get to zero. You could get to three or 2.5 per cent. We’re technically almost at full employment. There are 50,000 estimated Jamaicans who are not employed. We could bring a certain number more into the labour force; but right now, it’s about 50,000 and we’re doing everything possible to train them,” he explained.

“The issue with the unemployment is not that there are no jobs. It’s a mismatch between the jobs that are available and the skills that are. So we’re doing everything to get our workers skilled so that they can take up the jobs that are available. But the important point that I would want to leave with this audience, in terms of where Jamaica is in its development, is that we have only started to experience sustained high levels of employment.

“And I want you to consider this, if we keep on this path of low unemployment for the next decade, it means that 97 per cent of the labour force would be earning an income for 10 years,” he added.

According to Gibran Chapur, CEO of Palace Resorts, Moon Palace The Grand in Montego Bay will feature 1,200 luxury suites, including over-water bungalows; more than 13 specialty restaurants, a water park, the largest spa in the country, and will employ 3,000 people.

He reflected on the company’s 10-year journey in Jamaica, which began with the purchase and transformation of the former Sunset Jamaica property into Moon Palace Jamaica in Ocho Rios — creating 1,200 jobs and strengthening ties with the local community.

“This is not just an investment in a hotel. It is an investment in the future of Jamaica, its people and its tourism industry,” Chapur stressed

Also during the event, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett welcomed the brand’s alignment with the Government’s tourism vision, noting that it supports the pivot toward tourism that is inclusive and embraces surrounding communities, rather than being purely extractive.

Palace Resorts CEO Gibran Chapur addressing the ground-breaking ceremony for the mega Moon Palace project in St James on Monday.

Guests in attendance during Monday’s ground-breaking ceremony for the mega Moon Palace project in St James.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett speaking during Monday’s ground-breaking ceremony for the mega Moon Palace project in St James.