Negril Chamber says Omega Hospital will influence more mature tourists
Published:Tuesday | January 24, 2023 | 1:00 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
BUSINESS LEADERS in Negril, Jamaica’s most westerly resort town in Westmoreland, say the destination is poised to receive an influx of senior visitors to the area because of the multimillion dollar state-of-the-art Omega Medical Hospital.
According to Elaine Allen-Bradley, president of the Negril Chamber of Commerce, as a result of Omega Medical Hospital, the area will now get many more tourists. These, she noted, would include the more mature and health-conscious travellers.
“We are going to get more mature people flocking to Negril because if they fall ill, there’s a hospital right there. And they have the state-of-the-art of everything,” Allen-Bradley told The Gleaner at the soft opening of the hospital.
“This hospital is even better than some of what some of the guests have in their own country, so I think we’re going to see a boom in the more mature tourists coming to Negril,” she added.
“You’re going to be getting the more mature tourists like myself, and when you are more mature, there are a lot of ailments that beset you, so you would like that if you come to a resort and anything happens in the health space there’s a state-of-the-art hospital right there. And I think it will benefit the economy and it will benefit Negril a lot,” Allen-Bradley added.
Negril is the island’s second-largest direct employer of tourism workers, with approximately 12,000 employees, and remains a major source of tourism revenue, to which it has consistently contributed between 20 and 30 per cent of Jamaica’s total revenue stream.
In 2021, the destination raked in some US$1 billion in earnings despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett projected that the country is poised to generate US$5 billion in earnings from tourism for the 2023 calendar year based on the current trend in the industry.