MoBay needs business hotel – BPIAJ president
GLORIA HENRY, president of the Business Process Industry Association of Jamaica (BPIAJ), has called for the establishment of a hotel to cater strictly to business persons who might not be interested in the fun, frolic, and entertainment packages being offered by traditional hotels in Montego Bay, St James.
While Montego Bay, the nation’s tourism capital, is known for having several hotels offering thousands of rooms to visitors, Henry, a former president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce, said the area needed facilities that cater to people visiting the city primarily for business engagements.
The call was made while she was speaking during the opening ceremony for the Outsource2Jamaica two-day symposium and exposition staged recently at the Montego Bay Convention Centre under the theme ‘Innovation Through Digital Transformation’.
“We need our local entrepreneurs to deliver first-world-quality products and services,” advocated Henry. “We need quality products, supporting infrastructure, housing, schools, entertainment, training institutions. This is a challenge to the entrepreneurs sitting on their capital out there. We need a business hotel in the robust and growing business district of Montego Bay Freeport.”
According to Henry, there were available lands in the Montego Bay Freeport area that could accommodate such a hotel. She challenged representatives of Jamaica Promotions Corporation (JAMPRO) to lead the charge in bringing this to a reality.
Following her presentation, Henry told BPO Jamaica that the BPIAJ believes such a move would drive more business to the outsourcing sector.
“Our customers bring down trainers, sales personnel, and other business people from time to time who come for various reasons, and they will stay, for sometimes weeks at a time,” disclosed Henry. “The fun environment does not necessarily allow for the conducive work setting that the business clientele would require.”
“If you go to Costa Rica, you can find a Marriott (hotel) in the major outsourcing sector and in the global services sector,” she added. “This is the direction that we will have to go.”