Hotelier Jason Henzell wants strong agro-tourism niche

[Jangle]

TREASURE BEACH, St Elizabeth —As Jamaica's tourism industry seeks to battle back from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a call for agro-tourism to be developed as a strong niche especially on the south coast.

Identifying Jamaican farmers as among the “true heroes” in times of crisis such as the ongoing pandemic, Treasure Beach hotelier Jason Henzell said their role should be celebrated by integrating agriculture in the tourism product.

“I want agro-tourism to be a massive part of the recovery strategy, we have always had agriculture over here and tourism over there, and we have never really seen them as one thing. We need to change that,” Henzell told the Jamaica Observer's Business Report.

Henzell says he and other tourism players have the opportunity to “make a product out of agro-tourism... there is a niche market there”.

The way he visualises it, there would be regular farm tours for visitors, in the same way, they visit traditional attractions, to point out Jamaican agriculture's value and peculiarities.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/busin...1?profile=1056

[Assasin]

Part of how Tourism can move Jamaica forward in the 21st century.
Another is medical tourism. We can use the income from Medical Tourism and fix up our health system.

[Jangle]

Tourism in Jamaica means fat white people lying around on the beach soaking up the sun in their all-inclusive hotels to be waited on by low-skilled butlers then being herded into tour buses to be shepherded to craft markets to buy trinkets where sixty percent of their spending is then shipped back to their countries of origin proving the point that it is not a value-added industry that can lead the country to prosperity.

[Bricktop]

mi nuh know bout dah one yah still...

[Assasin]

you didn't have to remind me of the brilliance. LOL!!!

[Assasin]

Think about it Bricky. From Ochie you go to a well organize blue Mountain coffee farm and then have some good coffee delights, then on the way back you stop at Jamaica Producer Banana farm and then couple with some good delight such as chips of all sort etc.

It can gwaan but the far tour have to have a litte more than going to bush. A little culture, story and taste.

[Don1]

Part of how Tourism can move Jamaica forward in the 21st century.
Another is medical tourism. We can use the income from Medical Tourism and fix up our health system.

[Don1]

Think about it Bricky. From Ochie you go to a well organize blue Mountain coffee farm and then have some good coffee delights, then on the way back you stop at Jamaica Producer Banana farm and then couple with some good delight such as chips of all sort etc.

It can gwaan but the far tour have to have a litte more than going to bush. A little culture, story and taste.

[Jangle]

Farms here in the USA supplement their income by allowing tours at each harvest and host events during the growing period. Thousands of visitors turn up annually. Parents take their kids to see the animals in pens, goats , pigs, cows and others. It’s all about how things are packaged and marketed. Tourists are interested in more than the sun, sand and sea.

[Assasin]

exactly and put two ATV fi drive.

[Bricktop]

how many farms we have are of that size to be of any real interest? we have the ATV tours in the hills already...

[Jangle]

You only need about 2 or 3 to become an attraction. I used to go to Bunting’s farm in May Pen for their big shingding at Christmas time. There’s the Appleton Estates and there are more big farms across the island.

[Assasin]

We have a good amount. As I said Jamaica Producers in St.Mary, Blue Mountain Coffee farm and factory are just two example.

There must be some in St.Bess etc. If Farmers know that they can suppliment there income with this they will make more.

Have you been to the Coke Museum in Atlanta? The most overated thing I can imagine. As a youth we use to go to Lanaman factory in Kingston on trip as part of hope garden trip. We have to think more like this. Little kids will want to go and if the kids go the parents have to go too.

[Sir X]

So basically all this has been going on for years under successive governments and haven't moved the needle and you expect it to move the needle now. Or yuh juss waan to plug yuh party ?

[Don1]

Parents take their kids to see the animals in pens, goats , pigs, cows and others. It’s all about how things are packaged and marketed. Tourists are interested in more than the sun, sand and sea.

Wow!! Observing goats, pigs and cows!!

What a game changer!!!