Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Sustainable Development and Culture Carlos James says that while local hotelier have expressed concerns about the use of Jet Skis; there is a need to strike a balance and allow for the use of Jet Skis in a regulated manner.
“We have to balance it because there are young people saying to me when they travel to our country. They want to take more risks, more adventure tourism, like hiking and surfing, but also marine sport activity. So rather than utilizing areas close to some coasts, which is you have the hotel band, you can look at other areas that are more isolated, where you can zone the operation so you can have adventure tours,” James said.
The Tourism Minister spoke of the possible introduction of Jet Ski licenses and penalties that can be put in place for persons that take their Jet Skis out of the dedicated areas of operation, using Troumaca Bay as one of the possible Jet Ski zones.
“If you breach the conditions of the license, which is taking the Jet Ski, let’s say for instance, we use a place like Troumaca Bay as a zone and you being the jet ski all the way around to Young Island or you dock up here at Paradise beach, you’ll lose your license, Because it is meant for you to operate within a particular zone,” James said.
Minister James said that zoning the jet ski operations in more rural areas will lead to increased tourism traffic to those areas, a move that he says will lead to transformation in those areas, and see taxi operators benefiting financially.
