Glenda Anderson, Staff ReporterWITH HOPES buoyed by the arrival of Jamaica's one millionth cruise ship visitor last week and 'early winds' of increased tour bookings, hotel occupancy, some Ocho Rios businesses are on a high. They are a bit wary however.
"This year should be much better," one businessman predicted amid a trickle of visitors from tour buses to his shop on the Taj Mahal plaza in the town centre.
"Although it's early days you can see that it's going to be, and we hope it's going to be, much different from last year," Gobind Sujanani, owner of the Gem Palace said. "The season is certainly picking up." Other owners had even more grand hopes for promoting Jamaica as a shopping mecca, this season and beyond.
"We need to promote Jamaica as 'the place to shop'. The word is 'shopping', and we need get that into every advertising message that we send. The more we improve and advertise and send that message out the better it will be for business," operator of Colours duty-free shop, Jack Thakurani said.
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Some duty-free shops, like his, advertise directly on the passenger ships, and this he says has really been going well. So well that there was no particular new package planned for the season, just a more sustained promotional thrust.
"We have deals going on all during the year."
Across the town with its mix of coiling bustling streets and wider roadways, the shops and plazas squeezed in between each other showed signs of moderate excitement.
Some storefronts advertised sales days and various discount opportunities.
"Clothes, home appliances, and electronics, that's it this year," one saleswoman said of her faster going products. She said the season in general was not yet well-defined as business was still inconsistent.
"I don't really feel it yet, things are a bit slow right now, but we're hoping it will pick up. You just caan stop," she said.
At the Jamaica Renaissance Grande hotel occupancy levels were in the high 90s, senior concierge Kerrine Mahabir reported.
She said expectancy was also high for the Christmas/winter season which was generally one of the better periods for the hotel which claimed majority local guests.
Meanwhile, for craft vendors on the outskirts of the town, and along the Fern Gully attraction, the excitement of cruise ship arrivals and the holiday season had yet to build.
Stephlyn Livermore, a craft vendor in Swansea, Cole Gate, said, "The cruise ship a nuh fi we, a fi di Indian dem. When the drivers come them just turn right back, them go to the bigger heads dem who can give them tips. They get tips which we caan give them that so we only live by the mercy of God."
But this was disputed by one tour bus driver, Samuel Wilmot.
"I don't think they understand how this works. There are different types of tour. There are pre-booked tours and freelance tours. This, for example, is a pre-booked tour meaning the stops are scheduled. You are told, for example, to go to Brimmer Hall. That's a short stop, then on to Dunns River, that's a stop for 40 minutes, and you move according to the schedule. It's a guided tour. Other drivers who freelance, maybe they can do that," he said.
Mr. Sujanani also countered the claim of tips, saying the drivers were not paid to take passengers to the stores but were instead given gifts to encourage their support throughout the year.
"I wouldn't call that a bribe or even a tip, it's a token for their support," he said.
Norman Thoms, a vendor in Fern Gully since 1988, says he no longer relies on patronage from the tour buses.
"The season may be good for the Indians, but it's not so nice everything flop. All the buses do is drive past and (passengers) take pictures. A day or two out of the month may be good, but otherwise it's not steady."
On Wednesday, Jamaica welcomed its millionth cruise ship passenger to Ocho Rios amid much fanfare.
Larger businesses and some small shop owners hailed the event as a much needed boost to the season.
