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

Author(s): BRIAN HUDSON

Source: Caribbean Quarterly , December 1996, Vol. 42, No. 4 (December 1996), pp. 22-31
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.

Stable URL: https://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 concern
about the possible extension of tourism blight to the relatively unspoiled south
coast.

Jamaica's coastal tourism development has been criticised for its lack o
good planning and its detrimental impact on the environment, and plann
environmentalists and journalists are among those who have expressed fears t
the Jamaican tourist industry has failed to learn from the mistakes of the past.
This article draws largely on Jamaican newspaper reports of sometime
highly controversial tourism development schemes, and on the author's perso
observations and professional experience of planning and development in Jama
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

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 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

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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

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 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

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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

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 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

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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

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 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 responsibl
planners and business people in Jamaica, deserve support from sympathetic ind
viduals and groups in the countries from which most of that island's tourist com
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
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 Authorit
Development Corporation and the Jamaica Tourist Board. Undated.

2. Gloria Knight, The Jamaica Urban Development Corporation, Town and Co

Summer School, 5-16 September 1975 Report of Proceedings, Royal T
Institute, London, pp. 70 - 76.

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

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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

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 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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