By Adrian Frater, News EditorWESTERN BUREAU:
BUSINESS LEADERS in Montego Bay, St. James, are strongly disputing claims that inner-city communities are not benefitting directly from the tourist trade and therefore should have no special interest in protecting the industry, now threatened by St. James' escalating crime problem.
Speaking at a recent meeting between the St. James police high command and business leaders, which was convened to examine the parish's crime problem and formulate possible solutions, Jamaica Hotel and Tourism Association (JHTA) president Godfrey Dyer was quite vocal, stating that a significant percentage of the workers in the tourism sector are from the parish's 19 inner-city communities.
HOTBED FOR CRIMINALS
"If the figures are examined closely, it will show that well over 50 per cent of our hotel workers are from the inner-city areas," said Mr. Dyer, who is the owner/operator of the Wexford Court Hotel. "The majority of our workers come from these communities so it would be wrong to say these areas are not benefitting from tourism."
Based on police statistics, 51 per cent of the major crimes committed in St. James occur in inner-city areas, long considered a hotbed for criminal activities. Since the start of the year, St. James has had over 80 murders, 70 cases of shooting and 117 robberies, a noticeable increase over last year's figures.
In outlining the contribution of the hotel sector to inner-city communities, Horace Peterkin, general manager of the Sandals Montego Bay Hotel, said the property has workers from almost every inner-city community with Flankers comprising 20 per cent of his staff.
"Flankers alone has between 25 and 30 per cent of our workers," said Mr. Peterkin, who initiated the Sandals/Flankers Training and Recruitment Tier last December to help train unemployed youngsters for the hospitality industry. "We are not only employing people, we are also providing them with training."
