Website to promote tourism in St Elizabeth

Thursday, January 26, 2012

BLACK RIVER, St Elizabeth — THE St Elizabeth Homecoming Foundation has launched a website (www.visitstelizabeth.com.jm), to promote tourism in the parish, and expose other developmental activities to targeted audiences.

The Jamaica Information Service (JIS) says the website is being financed from a grant of $4.9 million provided by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), and a $2.58 million contribution from the community. It was launched on Wednesday (January 18).

Speaking at the launch at the Everglades Conference Centre, Parrotte, Chairman of the Foundation, Donna Parchment Brown, said that the site will focus on developmental issues. She said it was an initiative to market St Elizabeth as an emerging tourist destination, and part of the thrust to develop community-based tourism, as well as a voice for the Parish Development Committee (PDC).

"It is intended to be a significant tool in the marketing effort already being undertaken to bring people into the parish," she said.

Project Manager at JSIF Stephanie Hutchinson-Ffrench said her agency was satisfied that the project can allow persons, locally and internationally, to obtain information on tourism accommodation, culture, attractions, places of interest and industries.

"We live in an internet age, and if we do not keep abreast and utilise the technology, we will be left behind. We will continue to monitor the project and provide assistance to the Foundation, as they seek to promote the Best of St Bess," she told her audience.

The website was developed by the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) and funded under the JSIF Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI). The latter seeks to boost the capacity of rural communities to promote and market local enterprise and community-based tourism, as part of a poverty reduction strategy.