ST JAMES, Jamaica — Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett have welcomed the return of the European Plan (EP) model of hotels as part of the expanding tourism industry.

According to the tourism ministry, Sunday’s official opening of S Hotel along Montego Bay’s Hip Strip was the first significant hotel of its kind to open its doors using this model, in more than three decades. Large all-inclusive hotels make up about 80 percent of resort destination’s room stock.

 Bartlett described S Hotel as special “because the S is bringing back the model of tourism that has escaped us for a while, the EP model which offers an opportunity for more involvement and more participation.”

This sentiment was endorsed by Holness who said: “We must find ways to make tourism inclusive and beneficial to all the people of Jamaica.”

The prime minister stated that the strategy for tourism must be to ensure connectivity with the rest of the economy.

“The benefit of tourism must be shared with the people, because all tourism is, if you take away the block and steel, it is the people, it is the culture, it is our music, it is our language, it is our dance. It is all of that put together to form a package that distinguishes us from the rest of the world that makes people want to come here and enjoy,” he said.

Holness expressed the view that the industry must create an instrumental approach to ensuring that the benefits are shared. “Buy more Jamaican, employ more Jamaicans as entertainers; put them in your package, make people see them because that is what is going to create the value for your product,” he said.

Sunday’s opening of S Hotel was also attended by Governor General Sir Patrick Allen; former prime ministers PJ Patterson and Portia Simpson Miller; Opposition Leader Dr Peter Phillips and Opposition Spokesman on Tourism, Dr Wykeham McNeil.