Janet Silvera, Senior Tourism Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:

Chairman of the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), Godfrey Dyer, yesterday lauded Prime Minister Bruce Golding for being brave enough to make the decision.

Dyer, a former president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) who has been calling for a change in the gambling laws since 1985, said that, had the decision been taken earlier, the advantages and benefits would have been much greater. However, he believes, even at this stage, it will assist in enhancing tourism and encouraging a greater flow of repeat business.

Developers of the Palmyra Resort and Spa in Montego Bay, St James, operating under a company known as Celebration Jamaica Limited, and Harmony Cove in Trelawny, are the two entities that have been given approval by the Government to operate casinos.

Celebration will develop a 65-acre property adjoining the existing Palmyra Resort at Rose Hall, consisting of more than 2,000 new hotel rooms. The project will involve a total investment of US$1.8 billion (J$127.8 billion), the exact amount the Spanish investors have pumped into the country over the last 10 years.

Thousands of jobs

"Casino is just a fraction of the investment. We want to build a world-class destination, the result of which will create thousands and thousands of jobs," president of Palmyra, Dennis Constanzo, told The Gleaner.

He said the project was like a Roman arch of which the casino was the cornerstone that would hold it together.

The multilayered attraction will carry a water-themed park along the lines of the Atlantis in The Bahamas, villas, a marina, a water amphitheatre equipped to accommodate 3,000 persons and a dolphin bay with orca shows.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com