Jamaica’s scenic attractions are increasingly being used for more than sightseeing, as the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) reports growing demand for its properties as event venues for private and corporate functions.

According to Latoya Chambers, marketing manager at the UDC, the corporation has seen a steady rise in requests from individuals and organisations to use locations such as Harmony Beach Park, Dunn’s River Falls and Park, Reach Falls, and Ocho Rios Bay Beach, among others, as event spaces. She encouraged Jamaicans and tourists to make use of these attractions for their events, noting that the corporation has competitive rates.

“Harmony Beach Park, in particular, we find that quite a lot of persons are making use of the venue for their birthday celebrations, their little family fun days, and engagement shoots. We even had somebody get engaged, I think it was last week or the week before. Quite a few persons are choosing those locations,” Chambers told the
Jamaica Observer recently.

She said Harmony Beach Park, which is free to the public, has also evolved into a space for health and wellness activities, with regular sessions such as yoga pulling participants throughout the week. She added that alongside these activities, the park has also seen a rise in use by corporate entities, and the UDC is anticipating larger public events through upcoming partnerships.

While she was unable to provide figures on the number of events held at the attractions in recent years, she said the growing number of requests from individuals and organisations seeking to host events at the locations is what prompted the UDC to ramp up its offering of the service.

“We noticed that persons were coming and they were asking, ‘What’s possible?’ or ‘What can I do? I want to have this event,’ and so on…I even had somebody call and they were saying, ‘Do you guys own this space because I want to host an event,’ and we said, ‘Oh well, maybe we need to look into that space to see if it’s a space that we can develop for event rental,’ ” said Chambers.

The marketing manager said, amid the growing use of these sites for events, measures are in place to balance the demand for private functions with the need to maintain public access to the attractions.

“Whenever we have an event we try to ensure that most of those events are events that are open to the public. Nonetheless, you will have some events that are…private and secluded, and as such we have those spaces. Harmony Beach Park was designed in such a way that those spaces can be cordoned off or you can put up your tents and so on to ensure that others, while having access, are not intruding on your private event. Likewise for Dunn’s River, the property is huge so we have various areas that are quite suited for event[s], depending on what you want,” she told the
Sunday Observer.

Chambers added that the corporation also emphasises environmental protection.

“We have our very own internal natural resource management team and as such we have guidelines that we have to follow. In the contracts that we provide to our guests, it has guidelines as to all the permits that they need, what they can and cannot do on the property, because all of our actions have to be protective of the environment. We’re developers so in everything that we do we have to ensure that it’s sustainable and that also includes the management and the attractions,” said Chambers.

She added that local entrepreneurs and small businesses stationed at these attractions often benefit as well, with some invited to participate in events held at UDC venues.

“You get a professionally managed space, a flexible layout, and it’s suitable for any event — whether it’s a wedding, a birthday, corporate retreat or conference, wellness session, product launch, family fun days, engagement shoot, or if you just want to do a video shoot. If you want to do a photo shoot we also have spaces for those, so persons can come and they can imagine just saying ‘I do’ in front of a waterfall, or hosting their company retreat overlooking the Caribbean Sea, or sitting on the white sand beach watching the sunset while their guests are enjoying everything that we’ve planned for them,” said Chambers.

CHAMBERS…you get a professionally managed space, a flexible layout and it’s suitable for any event