Janet Silvera, Gleaner WriterWESTERN BUREAU:
AIR JAMAICA Jazz and Blues Festival's executive director Walter Elmore is threatening to move the US$2.5 million (J$1.6 billion) event from the tourism capital as a result of lack of support and broken promises by local hoteliers.
Elmore told The Sunday Gleaner yesterday that the Montego Bay hoteliers had reneged on the annual US$50,000 (J$3.2 million) cash and the 250 rooms sponsorship agreement made to support the festival. "There is no point having a festival in a town where you can't get the support needed to make it a success."
He said this year he received only 130 rooms and US$6,000 (J$390,000) in cash. "I had to buy villas and use all the rooms at my mother's house to accommodate artistes and production crew as the other hotels said they were sold out."
Extremely pleased with the assistance from hotels such as Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort, Ritz Carlton Rose Hall, Half Moon, Round Hill, Rose Hall Resort and Country Club, Toby Inn, Gloucestershire and Coyaba, Elmore said almost every act performing at the festival had to double up, even though their ryders (contracts) stipulated that they were to get single rooms. "That was the only way we were able to do the festival," he added.
This is the second time in nine years that the organisers have accused the Montego Bay hoteliers of lack of support. Five years ago the organisers made good on their threat and moved the event to Ocho Rios where it spent two years. Years ago the city lost the country's first major festival, Reggae Sunsplash because of similiar complaints.
When The Sunday Gleaner spoke with head of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), Horace Peterkin, he confirmed the challenges being experienced by the organisers. He was, however, optimistic that the issues would be worked out in an amicable fashion.
"If the event leaves Montego Bay this would be a great loss for the city, it feeds into the economy in an all-encompassing way, all the car rental agencies, apartments, guest houses, villas and even homes are sold out," stressed Peterkin. "The economic spin-off is direct."
The event, which is now the biggest Jazz and Blues festival in the Caribbean, saw an average attendance of 8,000 persons on Thursday, 12,000 on Friday, with expectations of between 12 -14,000 for Saturday night.
This year the festival has been the focal point and the study for at least two other Caribbean Islands, St. Lucia and St. Kitts, that both host annual Jazz festivals.
"I would say this event looks like the model for event management in the Caribbean," Hon. Richard 'Ricky' Skerritt, Minister of State in the Ministry of Tourism, Sports and Culture, St. Kitts, who is in Jamaica looking at Best Practices told The Sunday Gleaner.
