Quite regularly, tourism conferences take place - sometimes in Montego Bay, our "tourism mecca" as the media like to call it. Every year, there is a regional Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development . Anyway, it's a marketing bonanza, but in my view a talk shop. We love talking about sustainability and environmental protection in the Caribbean; we are just not very good at putting it into practice.
This year, the marketing binge took place in Grenada - an island that is hardly a poster child for sustainability, judging from the ecologically destructive tourism projects (three in particular) that have taken place over the past few years. The government currently has a case in court brought by the non-governmental organisation Grenada Land Actors - a group that actually does believe in sustainable development. Ironically, Grenada's tourism marketing slogan is Pure Grenada, emphasising the island's unspoiled natural beauty.
Yes, the Caribbean is a place filled with ironies.
By the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) definition, sustainable tourism is understood as:
"the optimal use of natural, cultural, social and financial resources for national development on an equitable and self sustaining basis to provide a unique visitor experience and an improved quality of life through partnerships among government, the private sector and communities" (CTO Caribbean Sustainable Tourism Policy Framework, 2008).
There is nothing pure, equitable or self sustaining about what is happening just off the coast near the tourist resort of Ocho Rios in St. Ann, Jamaica; certainly it has not improved anyone's quality of life. It is trash, it is pollution, and it needs cleaning up now.
This was a tourism investment (to the tune of US$1 million) of the kind that our Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett welcomes: a floating restaurant and bar, where one can enjoy a sunset drink or two. It is (was) called Poko Loko Jamaica and it opened to the public on June 28, 2024 after an opening ceremony on June 16, attended by the Minister. According to the Mayor of St. Ann, this was an eco-friendly destination. The owner and CEO is Anthony Warren, a U.S. national who has been visiting Jamaica for the past few years and saw an entrepreneurial opportunity while employing some 65 Jamaicans. All well and good.
According to its Instagram page, Poko Loko closed during the week when Hurricane Beryl was approaching (she arrived on July 3). A subsequent post on July 11 said that the restaurant was "devastatingly affected" by Beryl; but that they would soon be back in business. Stay tuned.
This video shows the damaged bar, half-grounded on a reef, with boats going to and fro, carrying various goods. Rumour has it that much of the infrastructure (including liquor which had been left in the bar) was "salvaged" by local people. I am not sure how this could have been allowed to happen - and Mr. Warren expressed shock at what he called widespread looting. Was it not secured or protected in any way prior to the hurricane?
Be that as it may, the place has been abandoned and is now a wreck, floating in the sea and seemingly partly underwater. Moreover, large boxes of styrofoam are littering the coastline. The photos below speak for themselves.
Surely this is not what sustainable tourism is about. This is not only an eyesore and an insult to the residents of Ocho Rios but environmentally damaging. It should be cleaned up immediately.
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