PM eyes 50,000 hotel rooms in 10 years
Published:Thursday | February 7, 2019 | 12:00 AM
WESTERN BUREAU:
Prime Minister Andrew Holness says that Jamaica is poised to increase the number of hotel rooms by more than 50 per cent across resort cities and townships across the island in the next 10 years.
“There’s a natural mystic blowing through the air, and if you listen carefully now, you will hear,” quoting the lyrics from a Bob Marley song while delivering the keynote address at the groundbreaking of Ocean Carol Spring by H10 hotel in Trelawny, yesterday, the 74th anniversary of Marley’s birthday.
“Within the decade coming, we could be at 50,000 new rooms,” the prime minister said. That is the magnitude of the expansion of the industry,” added Holness.
The Ocean H10 hotel will feature two five-star all-inclusive hotels. The first, a 500-room property, is scheduled to come on stream for the 2019-2020 winter tourist season. The second, a 440-room adult-only property, will be open by the end of 2020.
“We are about 33,000 rooms thereabout. Within another five years, we could be over 40,000 new rooms,” said Holness. “In a few months, we will have a new resort here of 1,000 rooms, but more importantly, we will have more than 1,000 workers. That means that we would have assisted more than 1,000 households in lifting themselves out of poverty.”
According to Holness, tourism is lifting Jamaica out of poverty and giving wings to the Government’s growth and prosperity agenda.
“We are not just looking at the kind of investment that turns over money and increases profit, but the kinds of investments that can turn around lives and increase the quality of life that people experience,” he said.
However, the prime minister expressed concern last week that the benefits of the tourism pie were not being equitably shared and urged hospitality interests to engage more locals in their entertainment and cultural packages.