TEF To Play Greater Role In Provision Of Public Parks

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) will be playing a greater role in the provision of public parks across Jamaica.

Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony for the new Sandals Dunn’s River Resort in St. Ann on May 26, Mr. Holness pointed out that a large part of the development of the Harmony Beach Park in Montego Bay was funded by the TEF.

The 16-acre development was undertaken at a cost of $1.3 billion.

“There are other areas in Jamaica [and] we have plans already to build those parks, and we will be expecting the participation of the Tourism Enhancement Fund in the building out of those parks,” the Prime Minister noted.

Mr. Holness indicated that the agency was already undertaking quite a bit of maintenance and beautification works right across the country, particularly in tourism towns, to ensure a clean and welcoming environment for tourists and locals alike.

He said these works are being funded by money coming directly from the tourism product, which is “very much intertwined into the success of the economy”.

“I think that our perspective on tourism as a country needs to be definitively positive, and we should remove this ambivalence about the product and be practical about it. What we have in Jamaica is an exceptional product, and with all the other issues that we face we are still growing in tourism,” Mr. Holness said.

“So, the sense that we are not getting full value for tourism because most of it is exclusive, that sense should not in any way colour the embrace and support of tourism,” he added.

Mr. Holness noted that aside from the direct tourism linkage industries where people get benefits though employment and services, the social benefit mechanism of the industry is also fully active.

“That will be a very good symbol for the people of Jamaica to understand that they are benefiting from the tourism product,” the Prime Minister pointed out.

“They are going to be benefiting directly from the jobs; consumption of their services, whether it is from the provision of utilities, furniture, food and agriculture or transportation; and they will also benefit socially by investing in parks, beautification of our roadways and in training of our staff,” he added.