KINGSTON HAS long been touted as a cruise ship destination and the city, the largest and most culturally rich in the English-speaking Caribbean, has much to offer tourists. When the neighbouring historic Port Royal and the harbour itself are added, the area is an even richer tourist destination.
But a report of a recent excursion of European tourists out of the city to the Bath Fountain in rural St. Thomas points to interesting possibilities.
St. Thomas, like all the other parishes, has attractions which can be part of the tourism product of the country. Apart from the Bath Fountain, one point of entry into the parish is via the Blue Mountains; Portland is the other. The salt lagoons are there. The first sugar estate was at Stokes Hall in the parish. The eastern-most point of the island is there with its historic lighthouse. And National Hero Paul Bogle's Stony Gut and Morant Bay courthouse could easily attract more visitors, local and foreign. The Port Royal to Morant Point coastline, with its rich ecological diversity could easily be the path of a tourist sea cruise.
The trouble is most of these attractions are poorly developed or rundown. The rundown botanical garden at Bath, one of the oldest anywhere in the New World, and the touts overrunning the fountain area with its healing waters, exemplify the general islandwide neglect of national heritage treasures with their tourism potential.
On Sunday we published the answers of three of the four candidates vying to succeed P.J. Patterson as president of the PNP and Prime Minister of Jamaica to The Sunday Gleaner's question, 'What are your plans for rural development and transformation?'
Naturally, each of them has given a commitment. One will have the opportunity to act on that commitment as Prime Minister. The others will most likely still have voices and roles in the Government which can take their vision forward.
Rural development, as all three contenders have made clear, is not just pushing agriculture. Serious infrastructural development is required as well as economic diversification and social services. Certainly the parish capitals, for a start, are in need of serious development activity. And a strong system of local government, Mrs. Portia Simpson Miller's portfolio, could be a major driver of parish level development.
Off-the-coast tourism, with other offerings besides sun, sand and sea, and information technology, which is not dependent on particular location, can be important economic platforms for rural development alongside the more traditional agriculture. After the promises and the campaign, bold action will be necessary to transform rural Jamaica. The visit of satisfied tourists to the Bath Fountain should no longer be news.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
