TEF Completes $42.7M St. Mary ‘Road to Attractions’ Upgrade

Road access between Robin’s Bay and Strawberry Fields in St. Mary has been significantly improved following the completion of a $42.7 million rehabilitation project undertaken by the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF).

Implemented under the TEF’s ‘Road to Attractions’ initiative, the project involved site clearance, earthworks, drainage cleaning and construction, and asphaltic concrete paving along the 1.6-kilometre roadway.

Speaking during the recent ribbon-cutting ceremony in Robin’s Bay, Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, said the rehabilitated road will facilitate easier movement for residents, improve access for visitors, and foster “a stronger connection between community enterprise and national growth.”

He noted that the road project is not an isolated undertaking, but part of a wider plan to expand Jamaica’s tourism product eastward.

“For decades, Jamaica’s tourism economy has been concentrated in a handful of well-established corridors – Ocho Rios, Montego Bay, Negril, Port Antonio…, and Ocho Rios has long stood as the tourism mecca of this area. What we are doing now, deliberately and in sequence, is extending that corridor eastwards through St. Mary and on towards Portland, so that the strength of Ocho Rios becomes the gateway to a much wider tourism footprint rather than its outer boundaries,” the Minister said.

He added that the rehabilitated road supports tourism communities and attractions that reflect investments by several stakeholders, including Strawberry Fields Together and the Robin’s Bay Hotel.

“By improving access to visitors, goods and supplies, this road helps those investments and the wider community to realise their full potential. A better road means more Jamaicans will come to know the attractions at their own doorstep. Too many of our people have never seen the falls, the coastlines, and the heritage sites within an hour of where they live,” Mr. Bartlett stated.

The Minister pointed out that the project embodies the principles of Tourism 3.0, which focuses on creating greater value from tourism for Jamaica and its people.

“Tourism 1.0 built the brand and placed Jamaica in the imagination of the world. Tourism 2.0 built the capacity, the diversification and institutional structure. Tourism 3.0, now, must build the value… and it must build that value in Jamaican hands, because the central proposition of this new phase is that tourism must not merely grow in Jamaica, but tourism must grow Jamaica,” Mr. Bartlett said.

He outlined that the new road will support economic participation by connecting visitors with farmers, fisherfolk, community guides, cooks, artisans and small entrepreneurs. It will also provide residents with greater ease of travel as they go about their daily activities.

Minister Bartlett encouraged community members to register and become certified tourism operators so they can better position themselves to meet the demand expected from improved road access to the area.

“The Government can deliver the road. The community must deliver the experiences… and both must work together if the value is to remain here,” he emphasised.

Owner of popular beach and tourist resort, Blessings at Strawberry Fields, and natural soaps business, Soap Factory by the Sea, Kwao Adams, told JIS News that the improved road, “has brought great improvement to the ease of access for all of our visitors and customers.”

The TEF’s ‘Road to Attractions’ Programme has been enhancing access to tourism sites and surrounding communities through road rehabilitation, drainage improvements, debushing, and strengthened connectivity between tourism corridors and neighbouring districts.

The initiative reflects the TEF’s longstanding mandate to reinvest the benefits of Jamaica’s tourism industry into infrastructure, community development, human capital development, linkages, and innovation.