Sav deserves cruise ships

Renowned Westmoreland businessman Ashton Pitt is on a one-man campaign to get the authorities to establish a cruise port facility in Savanna-la-Mar.

"This facility can change the economic fortunes of our parish and would also impact the parishes of Hanover and St Elizabeth," said Pitt, a popular tour operator and blogger. "I have sent proposals to the prime minister, tourism minister, and sought to get an audience with the municipal corporation. I am also preparing to submit a copy to the Port Authority of Jamaica," Pitt said.

"I will go as far as to say that no other location could compete with a cruise facility in this town or this region." he added.

Pitt believes that the creation of a cruise ship facility would not only create jobs for the hundreds of unattached youth in the region, but would also provide a facility for the export of agricultural and processed products.

"Falmouth, Montego Bay and Ocho Rios are accustomed to hosting two cruise ships at a time, and this is suggesting that there is a great potential for the growth of the industry locally," Pitt argued. "Savanna-la-Mar already has a natural deep-harbour port, where large ships docked and loaded sugar from the Frome factory during my childhood, so this is possible."