Jamaican tourism pioneer 'Ernie' Smatt dies in Miami
Published:Thursday | May 27, 2021 | 8:54 PM
Ernest 'Ernie' Smatt, the tourism pioneer who played a huge role in the early development of the sector in Ocho Rios, died Thursday in Miami, Florida while receiving treatment.
He was 88.
As news of his passing spread, tourism sector personnel hailed him as an icon of the industry.
A shrewd businessman, the Portland-born Smatt was known to rub shoulders with the likes of Hollywood movie stars Errol Flynn and Elizabeth Taylor, and activist Martin Luther King Jr, planted a foothold in the tourism business in Ocho Rios with Shaw Park Beach Hotel and Spa.
During the boom in Jamaica's tourism in the 1950s, Shaw Park Hotel opened with 30 rooms in 1953, on a hillside overlooking Ocho Rios that also boasted Shaw Park Botanical Gardens.
The hotel was relocated in 1965 to its current beachside location at Cutlass Bay in Ocho Rios and room capacity expanded to 94.
Also an international water ski star in his early days, Smatt later started a water sports business, Watersports Enterprises Ltd, in Ocho Rios.
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