Paradise Lost: A Planner's View of Jamaican Tourist Development

Paradise Lost: A Planner's View of Jamaican Tourist DevelopmentAuthor(s): BRIAN HUDSONSource: Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 4 (December 1996), pp. 22-31Published by: University of the West Indies and Caribbean QuarterlyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23050388 .

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22

Paradise Lost: A Planner's View of Jamaican Tourist

Development

by

BRIAN HUDSON

Abstract Most of Jamaica's tourism development has occured on the north coast,

more recently spreading to Negril at the western tip of the Island. Ribbon develop ment, largely associated with tourism, has transformed much of this coastal strip, and proposals for a new resort at Whitehouse, Westmoreland, have raised concerns about the possible extension of tourism blight to the relatively unspoiled south coast.

Jamaica's coastal tourism development has been criticised for its lack of

good planning and its detrimental impact on the environment, and planners, environmentalists and journalists are among those who have expressed fears that

the Jamaican tourist industry has failed to learn from the mistakes of the past. This article draws largely on Jamaican newspaper reports of sometimes

highly controversial tourism development schemes, and on the author's personal observations and professional experience of planning and development in Jamaica since the late sixties.

Tourist development threatens environment "God forbid that we should create another Ocho Rios or even another

Negril." Reported in Jamaica's Sunday Gleaner newspaper of 29 December 1991, this remark was attributed to a potential investor in a proposed new tourist development on the island's south coast. Most of Jamaica's tourist development, including over 80 per cent of hotel rooms, is concentrated on part of the country's north coast stretching from Ocho Rios in the east to Negril in the extreme west. Between these two places lie the major tourist city of Montego Bay, with its international airport, and many other resort centres in the northern parishes of St. Ann, Trelawny, St. James and Hanover. Outside this strip only the Port Antonio area to the east of Ocho Rios and Kingston, the capital, lying in the south coast, are of major significance in Jamaica's tourist industry. There are only a few small hotels inland and along the mainly undeveloped south coast, but a recent proposal or a 310 room restort on an environmentally significant 260 acre property at White



23

house in the parish of Westmoreland suggests that the southern part of the Island

may be about to experience the kind of tourist development which has transformed the north coast.

This article is a personal view of Jamaica's coastal tourism development from the late 'sixties to the beginning of the 'nineties, based largely on the author's fifteen year experience as a geographer/planner living and working in the Carib bean. Now teaching at an Australian university, the author again visited Jamaica in December 1991 - February 1992 during which time he travelled extensively in the island observing the landscape he has come to know well since his first visit in 1967. At the time of his recent visit controversial new tourist resort proposals were

receiving heavy local media coverage in an atmosphere of heightened environ mental awareness, and much use is made of press reports in this article.

The controversy about the environmental impact of tourism which the

proposed Whitehouse development aroused at the end of 1991 and the beginning of 1992 was soon further fuelled by another proposal, a scheme to develop a 240 room resort on a 20 acre site, 12 acres of it beachfront on Long Bay, Negril. Advertised in the 'seventies as "the natural beach resort... a place to get away from it all:1, Negril has changed greatly since the 1957 Town and Country Planning Law was enacted, largely to control development in coastal areas, and the preparation of the first Development Order under that law, the Negril Developmental Order of 1959 (superseded in 1981 by a new Provisional Order). The construction of

highway parallel with the coast at Negril opened up the area for development, and

speculative subdivision rapidly divided much of the Long Bay beachfront land into small lots. This inhibited good planning and design, but an opportunity for coherent

integrated development remained in the Rutland Pen and Ireland Pen properties which were acquired in the early seventies by the Urban Development Corporation (UDC).

The UDC was established in 1969 by the Jamaican Government "to act as a developer in the public interest... to

create urban development in designated areas ... in accordance with the main policy for urban

development within the island . This was partly to create employment and to reduce rural - urban migration,

particularly that to Kingston, Jamaica's capital and largest city. The powerful UDC

strongly influenced the development of several key areas of Jamaica including some tourist centres, among them Negril and Ocho Rios, recently criticised as examples of badly planned, or unplanned, urban growth. In the words of journalist Margaret Morris,

"Ocho Rios is all the proof we need that un

planned tourism development in a backward and

impoverished country brings in its wake squat



24

ting, pollution and irreversible environmental

degradation ... that unfortunate resort is now well on the way to destroying its own economic base"3.

While it is important to acknowledge the valuable contributions made by the UDC to Jamaica's planning and development and to stress that it cannot be held

responsible for all the problems which have arisen in Ocho Rios and Negril, there are some commentators in Jamaica who regard that organisation as having betrayed the environmental principles that it was entrusted to uphold.4

Among the evils of which the UDC stands accused is the unauthorised

blasting of foreshore areas and the development of its resort area in Negril beyond the capacity of its sewage treatment plant. There is now serious concern about marine pollution, and the proposed central sewage system for Negril is unlikely to be completed before 1996 at the earliest. The latest reported UDC outrage, however, is its sale of a beachfront parcel of land in Negril to a group of developers who intended to construct a 240 room hotel there. Opposed by environmental

groups and the Negril Chamber of Commerce, the immediate concern here is the threatened destruction of "the only little standing wood left on the Negril strip" and its replacement by a "concrete jungle"5. Much broader concerns, were ex

pressed, however, in a report prepared for the Negril Chamber of Commerce which

enjoys considerable local business and grassroots support and links with interna tional environmental organisations. This document, which was submitted to the two Government Ministers responsible for Tourism and the Environment and for the

UDC, emphasised that in Negril "our environment is what we are selling and in

destroying it through lack of planning and moni

toring, we put in jeopardy not only our earning capabilities of today, but surely all our earning capabilities of the future... we warn that the future

may be much nearer that anyone would presume as diseases, pollution and a continuously built coastline are not the expected destination of the would be traveller".6

Previous warnings ignored Negril's plight, however, is neither new nor unforeseen. Over a decade ago

a British travel writer who had known Negril in 1971, when it was still mostly undeveloped, described the situation in 1981 thus:

"Now the whole stretch has hotels, clubs and so called villages, and a rather nasty little township has sprung up".7

The article was reprinted in the Daily Gleaner, Jamaica's major newspaper which over many years has published innumerable well-informed articles and



25

letters on tourism and coastal development, often warning about the very kind of

problems which have been making headlines recently. In 1974, for example, a series of three articles drew attention to a range of problems which were threatening the island's coastal environment, including uncontrolled badly designed development, speculative land subdivision, the destruction of ecologically important areas and of

heritage buildings, together with the spread of visual blight of various kinds.8 In the first of three articles the author warned,

"If the type of development which has been

proceeding around the island continues there will

eventually be a built up strip along the entire coast of Jamaica", and it was becoming increasingly likely that the future tourist would find "that the blue Caribbean breaks on a shore lined not with

swaying palms, bananas and sugar cane inter

spersed with charming villages and towns as he

had been led to believe, but with an unbroken

sprawl of buildings and subdivisions." Thus development, much of it associated with tourism, threatened the very

resource on which the tourist industry depends. A similar warning was published in the journal of Jamaica's Masterbuilders

Association: "An island endowed with a beautiful, sunny cli

mate, exquisite and varied scenery, fine beaches

and an enviable legacy of history and culture, Jamaica has much to offer the tourist. It is all the more disturbing therefore, to witness a marked

deterioration in Jamaica's environmental quality including the disfigurement of much of its land

scape". Deterioration was particularly rapid in Negril, until quite recently a pristine

tropical beach area bounded by picturesque limestone cliffs and luxuriant wetlands.

In 1987 a Gleaner article, reproduced in the overseas weekly edition, warned,

"Negril, considered the fastest rising area in

Jamaica's tourism, is facing a dilemma which

could result in stunted growth and stagnation in

its development if the current 'hodge-poge' mode

of building is allowed to continued unabated".

Among the problems noted in the article were inadequate development control and the lack of a comprehensive development plan, leading to environ

mental degradation, affecting both the beach and the wetlands.

The need for a comprehensive development plan was identified much



26

earlier, in 1978, when a group of about twenty members of the Town and Country Planning Association of Jamaica and their associates prepared and presented to the Town and Country Planning Authority a report on Negril which included the

following: "We therefore consider firstly that a Development Order, however much thought has gone into it, cannot be a proper substitute for a comprehensive development plan which sets out fully Govern ment intentions in the area, and is something that the public can understand and feel, after due de bate. 'That is what must happen Negril'.11

Among the suggestions made in the report was a proposal for the creation of a Negril Conservation and Development Company including representatives from the UDC, the Negril Area Land Authority, the Town Planning Department, and from the Parish councils of Westmoreland and Hanover whose common border divides the Negril area.

The author, one of those who helped to prepare the Negril report, attended the Town and Country Planning Authority meeting at which the document was discussed. Dismissed as unrealistic by the Chairman of the TCPA, the Negril report appears to have been totally ignored in Jamaica, but one section of it was published in the Caribbean Review under the title 'The end of Paradise - What Kind of

Development for Negril?'. In this article appears a paragraph which anticipated the

problem highlighted by the controversy over the UDC' s recent sale of land for resort

development on Negril's Long Bay: "So far, however, plans for Negril's development have not been of a kind, which even if strictly implemented, could possibly conserve the quali ties on which the resort's continued success de

pends. Of particular concern is that practically the entire 15 mile or so stretch of coast between Green Island and Negril Lighthouse is zoned 'Hotel Re sort' or 'Resort Residential'. Even with a few gaps or 'windows' of open space such as those pro posed by the Urban Development Corporation, the complete development of the coast in accord ance with such zoning would utterly destroy the natural beauty of Negril's seaside. Resort devel

opment would predominate. Nature would be confined to a few small enclaves."

Coastal concrete jungle In 1992, one of the last of those few small enclaves came under threat of



27

development, and hoteliers whose established resorts have already contributed to the erosion of Negril's natural beauty were now protesting against the further spread of "concrete jungle". The long advocated alternative to coastal urban sprawl is an

orderly pattern of carefully sited and planned settlements and resort centres sepa rated by open countryside, cultivated or wild, a planning strategy which has both

aesthetic and economic advantages.12 This, of course, requires strict development control, and it is the idea of restricting building in this way which many developers, politicians and other find unacceptable. Yet it is in consequence of allowing a more

or less continuous ribbon of development along the coast at Negril that the recent

belated fuss about a small remnant of coastal greenery had erupted. Today, the last

few gaps in Negril's elongated sprawl seem about to be filled and now the

intensification of the linear development has begun. At the national scale the coastal ribbon of tourist development is still

discontinuous, the south coast being almost devoid of major resorts and popular attractions. Even the major north coast tourist belt has substantial gaps, especially where the absence of good beaches has discouraged resort development. Neverthe

less, between the old established towns on the north coast ribbons of development continue to grow along the main road, creating suburban and commercial strips characterised by a confusion of signs, advertisements and overhead wires as at

Salem and Runaway Bay in St. Ann, and west of Montego Bay in St. James.

Evoking "Nightmares of a Jamaica where every inch of habitable coastline

all around the island has been swallowed up by tourism development", journalist

Margaret Morris gives a very cautious welcome to the proposed new tourist resort

project on the south coast. While acknowledging that the Whitehouse resort

developer's voluntary environmental impact assessment study may be regarded as

"a milestone towards sustainable development," Morris doubts the efficacy of

existing control mechanisms to avoid the kind of degradation which has occurred

on the north coast.13 Past experience in places such as Ocho Rios and Negril, where

development was supposed to be subject to planning control, suggests that there is

every reason to share her fears. Eco-tourism and heritage tourism Morris suggests that the yet unspoiled south coast is particularly suited to

"eco-tourism ... the new buzz word in the trade", and it is encouraging to see that

at Black River tourist boat trips into the Great Morass are now being provided on

a regular basis. It is all the more sad to learn, therefore that the destruction of these

tropical wetlands continues and that the swamps here are still used as a garbage

dump. Black River is one of several historic towns in Jamaica with a rich heritage

of old buildings that have been allowed to decay but which still have great potential for "heritage tourism". An encouraging development is the use of Black River's

moribund port, with its old wharf and warehouses as the basis for tourist boat



28

excursions into the swamps, although the construction of the inevitable circular thatch-roofed bar strikes a discordant note on the historic waterfront.

The recent publication of proposals to preserve and exploit for tourism

many of Jamaica's historic buildings and townscapes has brought renewed attention to this neglected aspect of island's tourist industry. Jamaica's Heritage, An Un

tapped Resource is the work of a group of English visiting experts in association with Jamaica's Tourism Action Plan Limited together with the Jamaica National

Heritage Trust.14 Attractively presented with numerous colour photographs, the book reiterates many ideas which have been put forward in the past including the conversation and tourist development of the Georgian town of Falmouth and the tasteful exploitation of places of historic and environmental interest.15 Even the

proposed Heritage Trails were anticipated by Philip Wright and Paul White whose excellent guidebook, published in 1969, is largely organised on the basis of scenic and historic routes, and by the National Physical Plan for Jamaica 1970 - 1990 with proposals for designated scenic roads.

Despite proposals for heritage conversation and heritage tourism during the past quarter of a century, with a few notable exceptions such as Devon House, Port Henderson and Rose Hall, the picture has been one of general neglect, decay and vandalism. One notable example of official neglect and vandalism is that of the Retirement property near Montego Bay, which was acquired by the Parish Council of St. James. In the mid-'seventies the Jamaican Tourist Board was investigating the possibility of incorporating some of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century sugar estate houses and associated buildings into its 'Tourism Product' with a view to organising heritage tours in the north coast area. Among the sites considered was Retirement estate with its beautifully proportioned stone great house, splendid aqueduct, intact waterwheel and remarkably complete collection of sugar works

buildings. Two great advantages of this important historic site were its close

proximity to Jamaica's major tourist centre, Montego Bay, and its being in the

possession of the local authority the St. James Parish Council. At the instigation of the Jamaica Tourist Board a report was prepared and submitted to the council with recommendations for the conservation and development of Retirement17. Included in the proposals was the following:

"With good road access ... and proper publicity, the estate buildings would become a tourist attrac tion even as they stand today. Well integrated refreshment facilities and appropriate shops might be incorporated into the scheme, but the gim mickry which mars some historic tourist spots should be avoided".

As things transpired, it was not gimmickry but garbage which buried hopes for Retirement. Neglected by the authorities and abandoned to vandals, "Retire



29

ment Great House with its once elegant waterwheel is now submerged in burning garbage - Montego Bay's garbage!"

8

With such a sad record, can Jamaica's recent tourism development propos als be viewed with optimism? Can the renewed interest in 'eco-tourism' and

'heritage tourism' be seen as the drawing of a new enlightened age in the history of Jamaica's tourist industry? Does the EIA for the proposed Whitehouse resort

signify the beginning of orderly, environmentally sensitive development along the south coast rather than an extension of the mess which characterises much of the north coast?

Environmental groups unite Much will depend on the success of Jamaica's many environmental groups

in their efforts to influence Government policy and private development. The

country appears to be experiencing a resurgence of the environmental concern

which previously emerged in the early 'seventies19 and it is significant that, in their

fight against the UDC's decision to allow the controversial resort development at

Negril, the local business community has "taken an environmental stance".

Concerned local people are angry that the requested environmental assessment

study will not influence the UDC's decision to proceed with the development, but

merely decide what form it will take. At the national level growing environmental

concern has led to the formation of the National Environmental Societies Trust

(NEST) which brings together twnety-five Non-Government Organisations includ

ing scientific, naturalist, academic, professional and business bodies with interests

in the environment. The Jamaican press, too, is giving prominence to the environ

mental debate, and tourist development is often subject of critical comment in the media.

Conservationists, including environmentally sensitive and responsible

planners and business people in Jamaica, deserve support from sympathetic indi

viduals and groups in the countries from which most of that island's tourist come,

mainly the US, Canada and Europe. Jamaica still retains an amazing beauty and

offers a wide range of attractions for the tourist; but without a drastic change in

development policy, apparently aimed at maximum exploitation for short-term

profits, and appropriate action, that Caribbean islands in serious danger of becom

ing a Tourist Paradise Lost. NOTES and REFERENCES

1. Negril Jamaica. Publicity pamphlet produced for the Negril Area Land Authority by the Urban Development Corporation and the Jamaica Tourist Board. Undated.

2. Gloria Knight, The Jamaica Urban Development Corporation, Town and Country Planning Summer School, 5-16 September 1975 Report of Proceedings, Royal Town Planning Institute, London, pp. 70 - 76.

3. Margaret Morris, Tourism expansion and the Environment, The Sunday Gleaner, 29 December 1991, p. 7a.



4. Margaret Morris, The UDC seen as an environmental villain, The Sunday Gleaner, 2 February 1992, pp. 6a, 16a. The Editorial column in that same newspaper issue asks "Is the UDC too powerful?" and suggests that the Corporation is regarded by many as "an environmental parasite."

5. Janice Ansine, Proposed $500m hotel in trouble, Daily Gleaner., 23 January 1992, p. 1.

Janice Ansine, New twist to $500m development, Daily Gleaner, 25 January 1992, p. 1.

Janice Ansine, High-powered delegation meets Negril C of c, Daily Gleaner, 29 January 1992, p. 8.

Janice Ansine, Study to decide fate of hotel, Daily Gleaner., 30 January 1992, p. 1.

6. Hotel project triggers community challenge, MIThe Sunday Gleaner, 2 February 1992, p. 2a.

7. Andrew Robertson, Sunshine island back on the map, Sunday Times, 1 February 1981, p. 50, Reprinted in the Daily Gleaner, 29 May 1981, p. 12.

8. Brian Hudson, Development on the Jamaican coast, Daily Gleaner, 22 January 1974, p. 3; Solution tot he development problem, Daily Gleaner, 23 January 1974, p. 3; Protecting the coast, Daily Gleaner, 24 January 1974, p. 3.

9. Brian Hudson, Tourism development and the Jamaican landscape, The Master builder, Vol. 19, No. 2, 1981, pp. 31 -34.

10. Ian Spencer, Hoteliers, residents concerned over future ofNegril's tourism, The Jamaican Weekly Gleaner, 14 September 1987, p. 4.

11. Brian Hudson, The End of Paradise. What kind of development for Negril?, Caribbean Review, Vol. 8, No. 3, Summer 1979, pp. 32-33.

12. Brian Hudson, Solution to the Development Problem, Daily Gleaner, 23 January 1974; The End of Paradise, Caribbean Review., 1979; Tourism development and the Jamaican land scape, Masterbuilder, 1981; Tourism and Landscape in Jamaica and Grenada. In Stephen Britton and William C. Clarke (eds.) Ambiguous Alternative Tourism in Small Developing Countries, University of the South Pacific, Suva, 1987, pp. 46 - 60.

13. Margaret Morris, Tourism expansion and the environment, Sunday Gleaner, 29 December

14. Marcus Binney, John Harris, Kit Martin and Marguerite Curtin (ed.), Jamaica's Heritage, an untapped resource, The Mill Press, Kingston, 1991.

15. The Georgian Society of Jamaica, Falmouth 1791 -1970, Kingston, Undated (1970?).

16. Philip Wright and Paul White, Exploring Jamaica A Guide for Motorists, Andre Deutsch, London, 1969.

Physical Planning Unit, Town Planning Department, Ministry of Finance and Planning, A National Physical Plan for Jamaica 1970 - 1990, Kingston, 1971.17. Brian Hudson, Proposals for the conservation and development of buildings at Retirement, St. James, Masterbuilder, Vol. 14, No. 2, June 1975, pp. 11-12. This published article is a slightly shortened version of the report prepared for the Jamaica Tourist Board and submitted to the



31

St. James Parish Council.

18. Ian Robinson, Keep alive our architectural heritage, Our Island Heritage, The Newsletter of The Georgian Society of Jamaica, Vol. 2, No. 1, October, 1991.

19. Council on Environmental launched, Daily Gleaner, 28 May 1973, p. 16. Brian Hudson, (ed.), Conservation in Jamaica, Jamaica Geographical Society, Kingston, Undated (1974).

20. Western Bureau, Negril residents rap UDC for go-ahead on controversial hotel, The Jamaican Weekly Gleaner, (N.A.), 15 June, 1992, p.4.



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Paradise Lost: A Planner's View of Jamaican Tourist Development

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