Ocho Rios sees correlation between business closures, tourist harassment

Correction & Clarification

In a story published in the September 16 edition of the Financial Gleaner under the headline 'Ocho Rios sees correlation between business closures, tourist harrassment', the impression might have been given that the Island Village shopping and entertainment complex has been closed.
The story should have said that operators of about half of the 35 or so shops comprising bars, restaurants and others selling cothing, books, souvenirs, reggae wear and Bob Marley memorabilia have closed their businesses. General manager of Island Village, Delroy Morgan, has since advised that many of those businesses have moved closer to the Falmouth Pier, Trelawny, which has been experiencing an upswing in cruie-passenger arrivals. We regret any misunderstanding.


McPherse Thompson, Assistant Editor - Business

A consistent decline in cruise passenger arrivals in the resort town of Ocho Rios, St Ann, directly attributable to tourist harassment, has resulted in the closure of a number of businesses predominantly dependent on support from visitors.

Among the more popular names are Island Village shopping and entertainment complex, a replica of an idealised Jamaican village where operators of about half of the 35 or so shops comprising bars, restaurants and others selling clothing, books, souvenirs, reggae wear and Bob Marley memorabilia; a local Hard Rock Café, an 8,000 square-foot outfit able to seat 180 diners, which opened in 2006 at a time when some 865,000 cruise passengers visited the resort.

Less than half that number of cruise passengers is expected to visit Ocho Rios this year, according to president of the St Ann Chamber of Commerce, Kumar Sujanani, at a Gleaner Editors' Forum with a group of St Ann business leaders and other interests on Monday.

Sujanani said other attractions which took a hit were the Harbour Shop Plaza where about 50 per cent of businesses have closed, Soni's Place where about 35 per cent of store proprietors have packed in, and the Urban Development Corporation pier where about 50 per cent of the units have closed.

Operators of other businesses in the resort town were also inclined to pull down their shutters, "but it's a cost to close so they keep them open," St Ann custos Radcliffe Walters told the forum.

Island Village, a multi-purpose beachfront complex majority owned by Ocho Rios Beach Resorts chaired by Chris Blackwell, was built at a cost of US$20 million and is located adjacent the cruise ship terminal in Ocho Rios. Other primary shareholders are Guardian Life, Sigma, The Gleaner Company, and Ray Chang.

The original concept for the village was to create an attraction that would serve as an automatic draw for disembarking passengers, but some areas were remodelled to make it more attractive for locals.

However, with a decline in cruise ship arrivals in that town because of what the ships' operators said was visitor harassment once the tourists hit the streets, there has been a concomitant reduction in support for commercial operators, Sujanani said.

"Not one tourist can walk in peace in Ocho Rios town," the chamber president said.

And harassment has come not just from roving vendors, drug peddlers, self-appointed tour guides and taxi operators, but an unlikely source - business people. According to Superintendent Gary Griffiths, some "business operators tacitly contribute to harassment by having touts invite tourists to their business places."

Sue Morris, a representative of the National Cruise Council of Jamaica, singled out Dunn's River Falls, once one of the premier attractions, as one of the places where visitors were constantly pestered.

At the forum, she produced a one-page copy from a list of what Cable News Network (CNN) described as the "World's 12 worst tourist traps", listing Dunn's River as number one.

Accompanying a photograph of what appears to be Dunn's River Falls, the author commented, somewhat tongue-in-cheek: "This admittedly pretty series of waterfalls in a lush forest has been transformed into a death march for millions of cruise shippers on shore leave.

"Visitors slog up a crowded hillside, holding hands with strangers like worker ants on a particularly gruesome mission," said the commentary.

"Aggressive guides hustling for tips complete the tourist-trap experience." It concluded: "Better to get ripped off on straw baskets in the Kingston markets."

The consensus at the meeting, attended also by Vana Taylor, area chair of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association and Senior Superintendent of Police, Carlton Wilson, in charge of St Ann, was that there needed to be greater collaboration between the various stakeholders in the tourism industry to reduce visitor harassment.

They also suggested that there needed to be better synergy between the various interests to develop the 39 Jamaica Tourist Board approved attractions to make them more enticing.

mcpherse.thompson@gleanerjm.com