Above: Jamaican Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett on a tour of Ocho Rios yesterday (JIS Photo)

Jamaica’s Ocho Rios has been earmarked for a $21.1 million tourism project, according to Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett.

The project, which will involve expansion of new tourism products over a five-year period, will be highlighted by a so-called artisan village.

“[It] will be an important addition to the infrastructure of Ocho Rios,” Bartlett said yesterday at a tour of the area yesterday with Minister of State Shahine Robinson, who has the responsibility for Local Government. “We will be spending some [just under $1 million] in improving the general look and condition of the Ocho Rios town itself over the next eight months.”

The minister, who said he had allocated additional funds for maintenance of the town’s drains, called upon the wider community to help make the town cleaner and more presentable.

“The people in the town have to buy into it and take that responsibility,” he said. “We can come in and put up the [$1 million] to fix up the sidewalks and clean the drains and to bush the area and generally give it the appearance of beauty, but it cannot be sustained unless the community buys into it.”

–Jamaica Information Service