Saint James (St. James) is one of the smaller parishes making up the island of Jamaica. Located in the county of Cornwall, this parish is one of fourteen. It shares boundary lines with four other parishes, namely Hanover, Saint Elizabeth, Trelawny, and Westmoreland. The capital of St. James is Montego Bay. This is not a town, as is usually the case, but a city. The transition from town to city was made in the year 1980.
The parish does not have any particularly distinguishing features with regards to its terrain as it basically contains a bit of everything. There is a fair amount of both flat lands and mountains. Only the Nassau Mountains are deemed worthy of any mention. The Great River is one of two rivers that grace the parish of St. James. The other is the Montego River.
Tourism is the biggest money earner for the parish and Montego Bay in particular is a popular tourist destination. In fact it has been referred to in some circles as a tourist mecca. The tourism industry is estimated to be responsible for the direct employment of approximately three quarters of the population of St. James. This estimate does not account for those indirectly employed by the industry, which is a lot. Some farming of crops does take place but not on as large a scale as in former years. Sugar cane for example, was integral to the survival of the economy, as St. James back then was one of the top sugar producing parishes. These days sugar cane is planted on a much smaller scale along with other cash crops and a bit of forestry is done as well. The parish also sees robust activity in industry and commerce and is now being seen as on par with the country’s capital city Kingston. It is believed that the creation of “Free Zones”, where businesses are granted tax and other concessions for opening and operating businesses in certain areas, played a significant role in this.
St. James makes its contribution to the education of its population via some top-flight educational institutions, some of which are the Herbert Morrison Technical High School, the St. James High School, Cornwall College, and the Sam Sharpe Teachers College. The Cornwall Regional Hospital is the facility providing health care for the people of St. James. It is a public hospital but there are also other hospitals playing their part, such as the Montego Hope Medical Center and the Montego Bay Hospital and Urology Center.
For those seeking accommodations in the parish of St. James the options are many and range from luxury hotels, to guesthouses, to bed and breakfast type lodgings, and a few in between as well. Some of the more popular ones are the Wyndham Rose Hall Hotel, the Doctors Cave Beach Hotel, the Iberostar Hotel, the Ritz Carlton Hotel, and the Half Moon Hotel. To move around the parish the preferred mode of transportation are the buses and taxis but rental cars are available for those that need them
The visitor to St. James will not be short of things to do, as there are tennis courts, golf courses, shopping malls, craft markets, and a number of beaches to check out. One of the beaches that should be on your short list is the Aquasol Beach Park, which also features go-kart racing. There is also the Montego Bay Civic Center, which houses a museum among other things for those with an interest in past eras. There is also exciting nightlife activity in the parish as a visit to Blue Beat or Margaritaville will confirm.