It was through frequent visits with her husband Levi Price to the Arawak Hotel — now knows as Sandals Ocho Rios — that 84-year-old Gwendolyn “Gwen” Price fell in love with the tourism industry. Levi was a plumber at the hotel at the time, so every now and again she was able to enter the premises, socialise with the visitors and get a first-hand look at the industry.
“My husband would come home and tell us about tourist coming to the hotel. He would say, ‘Mi see some white man, some stout, some have long hair.’ And when he began to talk I got excited. So I decided to start [to] go with him and I saw what he was talking about. From that time of going to the hotel I watched tourism and I liked the operation and it was just amazing to see,” Gwendolyn tells LetsTravelCaribbean.com during a recent chat.
A few years later, Levi resigned from the hotel to become a tour bus driver. While he was busy making rounds with the visitors around the emerging resort town, his wife sold fruit just outside the Ocho Rios Craft Market. Her clients were mostly cruise ship passengers.
Amazed by the support shown by visitors, her enthusiasm for the industry grew and Price decided to expand her offerings. She began selling craft items, an area she knew nothing about at the time. But she was eager to learn, and she did.
“We had our small kids and selling of the fruits was not enough so while parking by the Ocho Rios Craft Market I watch the craft vendors and learned a few things. There was also a lady by the name of Miss McIntosh who taught me little things. So I started to weave my basket, put my little pattern on them and while selling the fruits I put them on car front. To my surprise the tourist loved them,” she says.
“I was so happy and excited and from there mi start buy more things. My husband, after he drive the tourists around, would bring them to introduce to me and they would also support,” Price adds.
Gwendolyn Price shows off craftwork in her shop. She is pulling on the string of a yo-yo, an item which she says often fascinates tourists. Some of the items on display outside Gwendolyn Price’s shop at the Pineapple Craft Market in Ocho Rios.
She soon went all in with craft.
“At that point I realised I was benefitting and I now wanted my own stall in the Ocho Rios Craft Market. But the vendors who were in the market was against others coming in, didn’t want no more craft vendors in the market,” she says.
Price and about 19 other vendors were given a spot at Pineapple Place in Ocho Rios from which they operated for a while before things started going downhill.
“We were there for a while until some boys from all over start come and sell illegal products. Things were just getting out of control because they said the tourists were being harassed. Police have to start come around and things were getting uncomfortable and they said we have to move. So I decided that we the vendors needed somewhere,” she shares.
At that point, Price knew she would have to start advocating for herself and other craft vendors who would have suffered without an income.
“I went down to UDC [Urban Development Corporation] and spoke with Mr Allen who was the manager. I tell them that we have nowhere to go and we have children to feed and so on. We formed an organisation among us and I was chosen to be the leader and I spoke up for my people,” she says.
Gwendolyn was triumphant and the vendors’ wish became reality with the setting up of what is now the Pineapple Craft Market.
“We got the market open and everything was intact and we were so thankful. Over the years, Pineapple Craft Market did so much for tourism until at one point we were envied [by others]. I am very proud because myself and my people benefitted a lot,” she tells LetsTravelCaribbean.com.
But the elation she once felt has been replaced by disappointment, she revealed. Business, which was on the decline even before COVID-19’s stranglehold on the global tourism product, is much worse now, she said. No surprise as craft vendors rely heavily on the cruise ship industry which is still struggling to find a way to do business as a pandemic rages.
“I feel very downhearted when I visit the craft market because I’m used to seeing vans and buses with tourist. But for a while now we have been starved from the cruise ships and we are not getting any benefit. This has been happening before COVID but it is even worse now,” she says.
“I would want the Minister of Tourism [Edmund Bartlett] to think more about the craft markets all over Jamaica. We need help, knowing that we start out from scratch and contributed so much to tourism. Much more can be done for us,” Price urges.
TEXT, VIDEO & PHOTOS: AKERA DAVIS
