ST JAMES, St James —Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has pledged that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government, if returned to office after the September 3 General Election, will hammer out the long-standing complaints about exorbitant parking fees charged to ground transportation operators at major hotels, under the Local First programme.

Ground transportation owners have been complaining that they are being charged up to US$3,000 per week for parking at some hotels.

Bartlett expressed his sympathy for their plight while speaking at the JLP mass rally in Sam Sharpe Square in Montego Bay, St James, Sunday night.

“But we are developing, with our partners, a new programme and a new team for the ground transportation. This business of buying park is an abomination, and we are going to stop it in the new administration,” Bartlett expressed.

“And JUTA [Jamaica Union of Travellers Association]and the ground transportation group, all of them suffering now, and we understand,” he added.

The tourism minister, who is the JLP’s candidate for St James East Central, and who will be seeking to secure a sixth consecutive term in the constituency, has touted Local First as a policy that ensures local communities directly benefit from these new developments as Jamaica pivots toward luxury tourism.

“We will developed a programme that we’re going to call Local First. You know what I mean? It means we the people of Jamaica will have first call on all the supply requirements for tourism. And how you going to do that? You’re going to do that by building the capacity of all of you who are creatives to add value and to do more,” he said.

“We’re going to be making the little farmer in St Elizabeth produce more, and the Minister of Agriculture is working with us to make sure that that happens. The farmers in Trelawny, the hair braiders, the little man with the straw work, the cook shop across the road, and all the little people who provide services for tourism,” he added.

The tourism minister said Jamaica’s tourism sector has been significantly strengthened under the leadership of Prime Minister Andrew Holness, highlighting its resilience and growth.

He noted that in the nine years of the administration, the industry has expanded by 100 per cent, making it more robust and difficult to reverse.

“Nine years ago we had just over two million visitors, today we have 4.3 million visitors coming to Jamaica. We were earning just under US$2 million, today we are earning US$4.5 billion, what a Andrew Michael Holness, what a JLP Government,” Bartlett expressed.

“We have tripled the employment in the industry overall. When we came we were just about 150,000 all told, now, we are running close to 300,000 people in Jamaica from all walks of life that are involved in the tourism sector. What a Andrew Michael Holness! And our manifesto says it all,” he added.