NEGRIL Jamaica - The resort town of Negril is slated to undergo a major transformation aimed at beautifying and cleaning up the resort town.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett says the spruce-up programme, which is supported through pledges by hoteliers Lee Issa (Couples Resorts) and Adam Stewart (Sandals Resorts International), is to start on April 19. The minister is calling on others to make similar pledges.

"Let's keep the pledge going because I am going to put together the programme under spruce-up to have a massive spruce-up of Negril starting the 19 of April this year," revealed Bartlett.

The minister, who was addressing a Negril stakeholders meeting held at The Boardwalk Village in Hanover on Thursday, noted that in working closely with the Negril stakeholders he wants the place to be managed and kept clean.

"This is why I make the point that there is no excuse for your situation in life for you not to have a clean, decent and sanitary environment. The days when we use to shout and say the space is too sanitary for you and you want to desanitise the area, those days are gone. Let's not have them back and let us appreciate that there is a new movement for Jamaica to reinvent itself and take itself in the new post-COVID era," stated Bartlett.

The minister said this project falls on the eve of a planned slew of development projects for Negril which is shared by both parishes of Hanover and Westmoreland.