Jam Culture

Every parish in Jamaica has its own unique culture and heritage experience as well as cultural sites; however for this research the focus will be on Kingston and St. Andrew. Some of the cultural sites in Kingston and St. Andrew includes: The Blue Mountain, Port Royal, Kingston Craft Market, Tuff Gong Studios, Bob Marley Museum, Kingston Ward Theatre, National Heroes Park, Trench Town, Edna Manley College and Jamaica’s National Art Gallery. These sites showcase the music, art, craft and culture of Jamaica and are largely part of what makes the city of Kingston unique. Unfortunately, many of our cultural attractions are currently being underutilized (Walters, 2013).

Kingston’s craft market has unique craft items with culture and heritage significance that are being sold by locals; however, many of these items remain unsold because of the limited amount of tourists that visit the craft market.

Similarly, the Ward Theatre is a culture and heritage site in Kingston with rich history; never-the-less the site does not receive adequate amount of visitors.

In addition, Port Royal is another culture and heritage site in Kingston with a rich Jamaican history and tremendous potential; however, tourist visits to the site need to be increased. Waters (2008) Port Royal was once a famous port city sited as ‘the wickedest city in the world’, destroyed by an earthquake in 1692, is still visited by tourists as an attraction, but it needs a boost, higher visitor arrivals to thrive as it once did. Port Royal, a Jamaican National Heritage Site, is an area that has played an important part in Jamaica’s colonial history; it is very rich in culture and heritage and that is something we need to showcase and promote to the world. This rich heritage could now be used to recreate the vibrancy of the 17th century for tourists and cruise passengers (Waters, 2008).

The Ward Theatre, Kingston Craft Market and Port Royal are examples of culture and heritage sites in Kingston, Jamaica that could benefit from the use of application based technology to promote these sites in order for more tourists to visit.