Jamaica's new tourism capital?

With thousands of cruise ship passengers expected to dock in Falmouth over the coming weeks, the region’s top adventure attraction company has dug deep into its pockets to boost Trelawny’s tourist attraction landscape.

 Chukka Caribbean Adventure Tours have invested some US$2.5 million in creating a 10-excursion tourist attraction site at the Good Hope Estates in the parish and has partnered with Island Routes Caribbean Adventure Tours to be their destination marketing company.

“Our company will be employing 120 persons directly for what we are doing here and most of persons from Trelawny.  While 70 percent of the persons have never been involved in tourism, we have done extensive training to ensure that persons are familiar with the product we are offer and how we deliver it and the tourism sector” according to co-managing director of Chukka Caribbean Adventures Marc Melville.

Island Routes hosted a group of journalists over the weekend as apart of their Caribbean Marketplace activities to experience a preview of the attractions at the historical site. The Chukka Caribbean Adventure site will be opened to the public in time for docking of the first ship at the Falmouth Heritage Dock in February.  

Melville, who is also the president of the Association of Jamaica Attraction Limited (AJAL) further revealed that to be able to develop such a variety of attractions in one location is ‘like a dream come true’ as the area has the type of diversity to make the tourist experience unique.

“We have never built 10 tours on one site so that’s a first for us and its direction we are heading as a company. This is what we think is a perfect mix adventure with history, culture and culinary tours in one central location” an enthused Melville explained.

According public relations and social media manager at Island Routes Hope Evans, the Good Hope Estates serves as the newest series of tours under the Island Routes roster that the destination marketing company will be selling for Chukka Caribbean.

 “It is one of the best partnerships that we have as they (Chukka Caribbean) really place a high standard on their safety for visitors which are important for us when we are marketing an attraction. All of our partners have to pass an aggressive test in order for us to do business with them and so excited about what this venture by Chukka and what they will be doing on this beautiful site” Evans revealed.

Among the tours persons will experience includes river tubing, zip line, a tour of the Good Hope Great House, ATV and Dune Buggy tours along with several others.