Montego Bay Tourism Enhancement Fund Transforming the City

Through funding and other developments that enhance the city of Montego Bay, the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) is assisting the city’s civic leadership in achieving a transformation to preserve its character and cultural heritage.

A process of transformation is underway in this resort city, driven by funding from the Tourism Enhancement Fund. The former civic center in Sam Sharpe Square exemplifies this process as it becomes the Montego Bay Cultural center housing the National Art Gallery West, a museum, a space for the performing arts and a bistro. The center will be officially opened to the public on Friday, July 11.

In the past year alone, the TEF has underwritten several multi-million projects in Montego Bay. The list includes conversion of the Civic Centre, restoration and beautification of the historical Dome, and renovation of the Harbour Street and Fort craft markets.

Close attention is also being given to the city’s landscape and to this end the TEF is also funding beautification of the AGS Coombs Highway (Bogue Road) and Montego Bay’s Elegant Corridor which spans the hotel development area.

The Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) performs the role of implementing agency for these projects and where appropriate, partners with other agencies, among them the St. James Parish Council, the National Works Agency and Western Parks and Markets with oversight by the Montego Bay Resort Board.

A Montego Bay Arts Council chaired by hotelier Josef Forstmayr is monitoring the $42 million conversion of the Civic Centre to give the resort city two new art galleries and its own museum displaying artifacts mounted by the Institute of Jamaica and the National Heritage Trust.

In a complementary move, the TEF has partnered with the parish council in a $9-million rehabilitation of The Dome, preserving it as a landmark of Montego Bay’s first domestic water supply source. The spring from which the water sprang, was discovered by two little girls chasing a crab over 200 years ago. The sound of a splash as the crab bolted into a hole under a huge rock alerted the children who took the good news into their community.

TEF is an arm of the Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment and according to the minster, Hon. Dr. Wykeham McNeill, the agency’s funds are being expended on areas such as Montego Bay because “we need to ensure that our product is the best it can be.” He is cognizant that “to be competitive you have to be constantly upgrading that product.”

Source: eturbonews.com