Mavis Bank residents urged to tap into lucrative Airbnb market

With the recent installation of community Wi-Fi in Mavis Bank, St Andrew, residents are being urged to utilise the technology to tap into certain lucrative opportunities such as the online home-rental platform, Airbnb.

Speaking during the recent launch of the service, Deputy Speaker for the House of Representatives and St Andrew East Rural Member of Parliament, Juliet Holness, said that through Airbnb, residents can cater to those visitors looking to experience the constituency’s scenes and tranquillity.

“You know how many people want to find some communities like beautiful Mavis Bank? And many people here have houses with extra rooms. Not everybody who comes to Jamaica wants to go to a hotel, not everybody wants sea, not everybody wants a pool. Many visitors to Jamaica would love to come to Mavis Bank and just hang out in a house up at Top Road [or] go down by Mount Charles,” she reasoned.

Airbnb rentals have become increasingly popular globally and have given ordinary Jamaicans a chance to earn a living from the hospitality sector.

In a March 2023 Jamaica Information Service (JIS) article, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett noted that 29 per cent of the 2.6-million stopover visitors who came to Jamaica in 2022 did so through Airbnb.

Holness told Mavis Bank residents that the division’s cool, mountainous communities would do well as part of the industry, so that visitors can “stay at your yard and pay you for it”.

“So, using this technology and making it possible for persons to come to the Mavis Bank division and have the experience of tourism, improved business and better communication [means] more money right here for the citizens of Mavis Bank,” she maintained.

She said she is “looking forward” to more Wi-Fi access points being created across the constituency and the continued elevation of the country’s rural spaces.