Airbnb,
the Bread and Breakfast website, is raking in the dough and helping us
Jamaicans get some too. At this point, now would be a good time to play Bob
Marley’s One Love to all my Trench Town people, as this article is really about
you.
The
website has brought some 32,000 Visitors to Jamaica since November 2016 as
reported in the article “Airbnb
Brings In Over 30,000 Visitors To Jamaica Since Partnership – Bartlett”,
Published Sunday February 26, 2017, The
Jamaica Gleaner.
So says Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett during a tour of the culturally rich Trench Town in Kingston. They're benefiting from an increased number of visitors who come to visit the hometown of legend Bob Marley overnight, rising to the insatiable smell of boil dumpling, ackee and saltfish with MILO as noted in my blog article entitled “How Ministry of Tourism over-reacting to 1000 Jamaicans on Airbnb as Trench Town Rocks”.
His
words were the most interesting that should be a delight to anyone trying to
make money from the Bread and Breakfast industry, which caters to the overnight
traveler.
Tourism Minister Edmund
Bartlett – Trench Town has more rooms than hotel industry
First,
he acknowledged that the majority of accommodations on Airbnb are from Trench
Town and other inner-city communities. No surprise there; I see lot of
Americans milling around Cross roads and Half-Way-Tree.....and they are not the
Pegasus crowd in fancy clothes but in Jamaican-styled clothing.
In fact, the number of locations far surpasses that of most of the major hotels in Jamaica in terms of the number of beds....and couches and possible verandah spaces to sleep offered. Apparently Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett doesn't realize that budget-conscious Americans, seeking an authentic Jamaican experience and the nostalgia of Bob Marley while visit to do business, aren't too mindful of the accommodations, especially if they can avoid paying US$157 (JA$20,000) at the Pegasus Hotel for one night in any of their rooms, which is a tad overpriced.
So
let the hotelier pass all their dirty remarks, Bob Marley style. His children,
the people of the community of Trench Town, benefit immensely from his legacy.
Diversification of the Hotel sector is putting money in the hands of local
Jamaicans as pointed out in my MICO
Wars blog article entitled “How
Jamaicans can make money from Airbnb”.
This
entrepreneurship within the tourism sector will most likely upset the hotel
that thrive on providing clean sheets and warm bed, as they are being beaten by
a little man who may merely be offering his bed to a weary American while he
sleeps on the verandah or couch.
But
for Americans, Airbnb makes their stay in Jamaica truly Jamaican and not sugar
coated as the Jamaica Tourism Board might wish.
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