Community Tourism Jamaica

Countrystyle Community Tourism

Dubbed as "the biggest small island in the world", Jamaican people warmly welcome you to experience the culture and life in the communities. To meet your special needs in Jamaica, SMART, partnered with Countrystyle Jamaica in association with the Central & South Tourism Organization (CESTO), carefully designed six styles of community tourism at your choice. The centre and south of the island was targeted as the model region for development. The main focus is on:

1) Private Home Stays- where visitors can stay in private homes with families and experience their way of life during their vacation. This has been proved very successful as it has enabled visitors to get the best of Jamaica's hospitality, learn the culture, heritage, entertainment, cuisine and more. Countrystyle presently receives many requests for this type of accommodation.

2) Bed & Breakfast Accommodation is also encouraged in the communities participating. Anyone interested in becoming an official bed & breakfast facility is advised of the requirements from TPDCo. Countrystyle is very selective about where there visitors stay and has been able to maintain visitor satisfaction.

3) Countrystyle specializes in serving special interest markets. These markets are researched and tour packages are developed to suit the interests of visitors. Educational institutions use Jamaica through Countrystyle's Community Tourism program as a lab of cross-cultural study and research. For example, Penn State University was the pioneer educational institution which requested Countrystyle to develop an all-island tourism and environmental package which included community interaction and meeting resource persons working directly in tourism. Seminars were held in each location where the good, bad and ugly of the community was openly discussed, analyzed and recommendations for each action determined. This information assisted Countrystyle to help communities in developing projects for improving the tourism product.

4) The Countrystyle Institute for Sustainable Tourism (CIST) was created to facilitate community training though existing training institutions for sustainable development through tourism. Major partners include CESTO, HEART trust/NTA- Kenilworth, NCTVET, West Indies College, Knox Community College, Western Catering School, Penn State University and Caribbean Action for Sustainable Tourism (CAST). CAST has endorsed the work of CIST and has indicated an interest in collaborating with CIST to develop the Caribbean Community Training Program for Sustainable Tourism. The Executive Director of CIST was recently trained as a Team Jamaica Trainer.

5) Countrystyle Tourism Consultants is a team of over twenty-five (25) professionals offering a range of services in all aspects of Sustainable Tourism. The consultant team has been invited to many countries in the Caribbean to develop community-based tourism. The group has been chosen from a number of projects offered and is in the process of finalizing contracts. The Major project is the Countrystyle Community Tourism Village Program.

6) Countrystyle Community Tours has successfully attracted visitors through the "Community Experience" packages which give visitors the flexibility to tour Jamaica with community persons and allows them to stay in villages island wide which have been sensitised by the Countrystyle group. Visitors enjoy some measure of protection from harassment and crime because of then approach of educating communities before they are exposed to visitors. The visitor response to these packages in Jamaica, has encouraged Countrystyle to develop Caribbean packages.

Meet the People Program

Community-based rural tourism offers the opportunity to have first hand experience with the way Jamaicans live and how they are working to preserve their environment.

These communities own private ecological reserves or are near areas of ecological and cultural and environmental adventures in addition to the more usual tourist services such as accommodation, tours and handicrafts.

Travelers participating in the Meet the People Program may get to meet a family, get to know a fellow musician, businessman, photographer, nurse, teacher or artist, or participate in a wide range of activities, such as hiking, shopping at a local craft market, enjoying a simple Jamaican meal, visiting a church, a clubhouse or theater, touring the countryside or even accompanying the host on daily errands.