Strip losing its Hip

With the closure of seven hotels along the popular Hip Strip (Gloucester Avenue) in Montego Bay the once robust tourist area is almost a ghost town now with less visitors flowing into the area to shop.

 

Close observation of the activities along the Hip Strip during the day there is a meager influx of tourist coming from the remaining hotels (Doctor’s Cave Beach Hotel, Decameron Resort, Montego Bay Club, Wexford Hotel, Toby Resort, Sandals Inn and Altamont West Hotel) on Gloucester Avenue and the cruise ships, many window shopping but are not buying.

 

Since November of last year the former Breezes Montego Bay locked shop and the owners, NCB Foundation has still not found a new tenant. Gloucestershire, another resort on the strip has been closed for over a year. Two neighbouring properties Casa Blanca and the Fantasy Resort and Sea Garden Resort (which has become known as Montego Bay’s white elephant) also remains closed. Coral Cliff Hotel has been closed and the once popular Buccaneer Inn is a now house university student.

 

On a visit to the strip a group of visitors walked pass a store where the owner ushered them a smile and asked “care to take a look here” as he points to his store but they only looked then shaked their heads as an indication of saying no.   Such rejection is something they are all too familiar with and which they all have in common.

 

With more sellers than buyer, merchants are feeling the pinch as more and more the amount of customers dwindle and some are not able to pay their shop rent at times because of this slow in business.

 

 “The hotel closures over the years have affected us real bad, I mean you have fewer and fewer visitors and customers and this is just one day, its everyday” according to Praksh Ghamnani and Kumar of the Hip Strip store along Gloucester Avenue

 

Kumar revealed that what compounds the problem even further is the fact that the major tourism shopping centres have indirectly lured the tourists away from the Hip Strip through various strategies they have employed.

 

“Places like the City Centre Shopping Centre and the Shoppes of Rose Hall they can afford to advertise on the cruise ships, we on the Hip Strip can’t afford advertise on the ships so you find that we get bypassed. Also, they offer guests free shuttle services from the hotels to their centres to shop, so the few we get are the ones walking along the strip” the frustrated merchant revealed.

 

Another store owner Sunut Punjabi of Strawberry’s mentioned that “survival is the key with the closure of these hotels as there are fewer customers. But what I have done is to up my customer service and promotions within the respective hotels and through word a mouth to make sure that whatever customers that is out there gets the best of what we have to offer”.

 

After years of closure, Vista Ambassador will reopen its door in May this year.

 

The Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) is trying to revive the area to its former glory through infrastructure and branding of the area. One such project according to TEF chairman Godfrey Dyer is the recreational park at the Old Hospital Site that is being refurbished at a cost of J $30 million.

 

“It is a lot of soft work that will be done there landscaping and such not a lot of concrete will be there. Work started there two weeks before Christmas by the UDC (Urban Development Commission) and it should take six months to be completed. It will be very nice that Jamaicans and tourist alike can enjoy once it is finished” Dyer stated.

 

He added that that another J$30 million plan to theme the Hip Strip area (from Pier One-Dead End) has been done and is now for the UDC and the Development Council in Parliament to sign off on this particular plan.