Trelawny to Benefit from US$16 Billion Tourism Investments

The parish of Trelawny is set to benefit from a myriad of upscale tourism projects over the next 10 years valued at a cost of more than US$16 billion.
According to Tourism Minister, Edmund Bartlett, these projects are expected to generate annual earnings of US$20 billion and will create 30,000 new jobs.
Delivering the keynote address at the Friends of Trelawny Association (FOTA) symposium entitled: ‘Trelawny Sailing into Success’ at the JFK Holiday Inn Hotel in New York recently, Mr. Bartlett said that among the new developments are the upscale 3,500-room Harmony Cove Resort, which will include a casino at a cost of US$8.4 billion; the 6,000-room Amaterra Hotel at a cost of US$2.4 billion; and the 2,000-room Excellency Hotel at a cost of US$6 billion.
He informed that the plans for the construction of these three new hotels are at an advanced stage and construction is set to commence early next year. The Minister pointed out that on the completion of the three hotels, Trelawny will provide 14,000 hotel rooms, which will be more than the tourism capital of Montego Bay.
The Tourism Minister also told the more than 150 participants that construction of the US$250 million cruise ship pier in Falmouth, for which plans are also advanced, will commence shortly. The project is being undertaken by the Port Authority of Jamaica.
This pier is expected to welcome just over 7,000 passengers to the historical town of Falmouth on the Royal Caribbean Genesis in November 2009 and will have the capacity to handle two Genesis-size ships simultaneously, Mr. Bartlett said.
“With these new developments, Trelawny is poised to potentially be the richest parish in the Caribbean. It is positioned both geographically as well as developmentally in a more advantageous position than any other parish including St. James, as it is about 15 minutes from the airport and will boast in another two years, the largest shipping port in the Caribbean, and will have the largest tourism enclave in the entire Caribbean region,” the Minister stated.
He noted that, “there is nowhere else in the Caribbean that have the potential to accommodate 8,500 top-end rooms with a golf course entertainment complex, high quality dining within the Caribbean region than the Harmony Cove mega resort, which will provide that service within the next five years coming out of the parish of Trelawny.”
Among the panelists at the symposium were Jamaica’s Council General to New York, Genevieve Brown-Metzger; Mayor of Falmouth, Councillor Colin Gager; Jamaica Tourist Board Regional Manager, Marcia Sinclair; Manager of Investment Support Services at Jamaica Trade and Invest, Robert Kerr; and Regional Manager Business Development Bank of Nova Scotia, Audley Knight.