‘A hotbed of apathy’

The Government’s development of Falmouth as a premier tourism destination is being matched by millions of dollars in private investment throughout Trelawny, but indigenous stakeholders are not satisfied with the involvement of locals in planning their future, likening the town to a rudderless ship.

Falmouth was the hub of economic activities in the days when sugar was king, and attempts are being made to restore the seaside Trelawny capital to its former glory and out of the shadows of its more celebrated neighbours, Montego Bay to the west and Ocho Rios to the east.

The construction of the Trelawny Multipurpose Stadium to host warm-up matches and the opening ceremony for the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup had caused many to cast an eye on the parish.

With the opening of Historic Falmouth – a multibillion-dollar cruise-shipping pier – in 2011 and the subsequent buildout of several housing, hotel and other key infrastructural developments, the once-sleepy town is now being touted as the new frontier for tourism in the region.

But former custos of Trelawny Paul Muschett is concerned that the development plans for the parish capital lack direction.

“The port is a big investment and I think that has really been driving the interest, but although the central government has decided that Falmouth is going to be a tourism heritage town, I don’t think everybody has bought into that,” the businessman told The Sunday Gleaner.

He sees the concentrated investment into businesses catering to local consumers as an indication that there is a divide among the decision makers as to whether Falmouth should be a tourism heritage destination or a commercial town.

“We have to decide what our main focus is going to be,” Muschett said. “Are we going to be mainly a commerce town? Or are we going to be more of a tourism heritage town?

“I don’t see any definitive evidence of development by the local people that says we are going to be tourism-oriented. They are not investing in the tourism businesses,” he added. “The reality is that there is a loaded perception that Trelawny is the fastest-developing parish in the country, but we are being treated as the orphan child.”

Richard Shirley’s family has operated several businesses in the parish for decades, including the Total service station in the heart of the town – Water Square – and he still believes that Falmouth is ripe for investment, but charges that all decisions on the future of the northwestern parish are being made in Kingston, with little to no consultation with local interests.

Shirley is also concerned with the rate at which commercial real estate is being gobbled up by outsiders, but acknowledged that complacency on the part of natives could be a contributing factor.

Muschett is convinced that the absence of a vibrant Trelawny Chamber of Commerce has left locals without a credible voice to speak on their behalf.

“The chamber is the only real organisation that is recognised by the Government and can lobby on behalf of the business people, but Trelawny is a hotbed of apathy,” said Muschett. “The business people in general have not come together and supported the chamber as the organisation that can lead the demand for services in the parish.”

James Tweedie, the first vice president of the comatose business group, heads a 15-member steering committee aiming to fix the issues and establish a new executive by the end of November.

“The situation is changing because there was a time when the municipal corporation would not consult with us, but we have been meeting of late,” he told The Sunday Gleaner.

“It is very difficult,” said Tweedie when pressed for reasons behind the dysfunctional chamber. “The problem with Trelawny is that there are just a handful of people doing everything and that cannot work.

“There are problems in the chamber and it has been very stagnant for the past few years, so we are working to fix it.”

However, Tweedie, who is also the operations manager at Falmouth Jamaica Land Company Limited – a subsidiary of Royal Caribbean International (RCI), which developed the cruise port in conjunction with the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ) – would not entertain any questions regarding his employers.

The pier boasts modern facilities and allows for the docking of the world’s largest cruise ships. It also has the capacity to handle at least two mega ships concurrently.

The PAJ reportedly invested an estimated US$167 million into the project with RCI putting in US$102 million with a promise that the historic Georgian town would see more visitors.

But for Muschett, one decade later, Falmouth is still not ready for the magnitude of what the RCI deal offers.

“Despite all the efforts of TPDCo and the other government agencies, and even the disruption of COVID, the infrastructure is still not in place to provide for an influx of nearly 4,000 tourists into the town on a daily basis,” he told our news team, referring to the Tourism Product Development Company.

“The issue of harassment is concerning, and uncollected garbage is all over the town,” he said. “So there’s a dichotomy with what is perceived as Falmouth as a developing town, and the reality that the citizens get, so we might have bitten off more than what we can chew.”

mark.titus@gleanerjm.com