Use JDIP, TEF to make money on trek to Blue Mountain Peak

Imagine a laid-back rural community with scenery so bright, air so clean and crisp, and the people so loving and gently that you think it is paradise.

Keep that same image in your mind, but expand it a bit more to include the fact that you are at the foot of the Blue Mountain Peak. The whistle of the birds is like Bob Marley's guitar in your ears; and the breeze caresses your body as if it is early winter.

The place your mind has just taken you is Hagley Gap in St Thomas. It is the last community in St Thomas before the peak, one with rich potential for tourism. But because of the failure of the State to effectively plan rural development, and the biased and disproportionate way in which resources are allocated, the potential of this area has not been realised.

Rural development key

It has long been our view that Jamaica's development will only be achieved when all Jamaicans are on board the production train. This means educating our people and having a serious policy aimed at rural development.

Hagley Gap has a very rich potential for community development and eco-tourism. We feel that the JDIP, the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) and the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) have very important roles to play if the potential of this area is to be realised.

It is the view of The Gavel that the roads leading to Hagley Gap, the foot of the Blue Mountains, should be repaired post-haste to allow for the realisation of the dream of which we speak. At present, the road which leads to the area, both from the St Andrew end and the St Thomas side, appears to be last repaired long before Adult Suffrage came to Jamaica. The bridge which spans the Yallahs river and connects St Thomas to St Andrew has been out of use since Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. Residents and tourists alike now use a ford, but whenever its rain 'nobaddy caan cross it'.

A smart use of the JDIP could cure this mischief. It would not only allow for the tourism potential of which we speak, but it would make lives easier for the hundreds of coffee, scallion and carrot farmers who live in the area.

As to the role of the TEF and TPDCo, we feel that both agencies can carry out beautification work along the trail. They could create coffee shops, bed-and-breakfast facilities and souvenirs centres, and train locals in hospitality. In our view, it's an investment that would not only pay for itself within a short time but it would give Hagley Gap, in particular, an opportunity to breathe at last.

Critical investments

If the Hagley Gap experiment works, which we believe it will, policymakers could then use the model of picking certain rural communities and making critical investments in them to drive development.

For too long, we have relied on a formula which has foreign direct investments in tourism and the creation of hotels in western Jamaica as the centrepiece for development. While this has worked to some extent, we have seen where the vast majority of Jamaican sites are not been marketed to local and foreign tourists. The time has come to change that; the time has come to finally use the TEF to do what it was intended to, that is developing Jamaica's tourism product for the world.

The Blue Mountain Peak stands high and her tears, carried by the wind, is a reflection of the disappointment she feels for not been caressed by more people. It is time to change that.

We hope Parliament, when it considers the revised Budget later this month, will find the courage and demonstrate the vision by ensuring hope is given to this starved region of St Thomas, in the form of an action plan that will make climbing to the peak an economically attractive venture for the community.

thegavel@gleanerjm.com