Treasure Beach is proving that community can drive tourism

While Jamaica’s annual Grand Gala on August 6th drew its usual crowds on in Kingston, a newer celebration was unfolding on the country’s south coast.

In Treasure Beach, Jamaica’s 64th birthday came by sea.

The "Country Grand Gala" sent a flotilla of about 48 boats from Billy’s Bay toward Calabash Bay, according to one of the fishermen taking part. Jamaican flags fluttered from the boats as residents and visitors made the journey along the coast, turning the water into a moving display of green, gold and black.

At Calabash Bay, the procession met a crowd already gathered on the beach. Music poured from speakers, vendors served food, jerk chicken cooked over open flames, and people filled the shoreline in Jamaica’s national colors.

There was no sense of a formal tourist production. It was a celebration that belonged to the people who live there — fishermen, business owners, families, visitors and friends all sharing the same stretch of beach on Independence Day.

The event is still a relatively new tradition, but its profile is growing. This year, Prime Minister Andrew Holness highlighted the celebration on social media, bringing national attention to an Independence Day gathering rooted firmly in Treasure Beach.

A community that shows up

Treasure Beach has long had a reputation for doing things differently.

The St. Elizabeth community has built a tourism identity around small hotels, villas, restaurants, farmers, fishermen, artists and independent businesses rather than large resort developments. But its strongest asset may be the network of relationships connecting the people who live and work here.

That became especially clear after two hurricanes — Beryl in 2024 and Melissa in 2025 — tore through Treasure Beach, leaving very different marks depending on where in the community you stood.

Some areas were battered by wind and flooding, while other sections escaped with less severe damage. Homes and businesses were damaged, vegetation was stripped away and parts of the landscape that residents and visitors knew well were transformed almost overnight.

But the response was remarkably consistent. People helped one another.

Rebecca Wiersma, who has lived and worked in Treasure Beach for more than 30 years, owns Treasure Tours and manages several villas in the area, told me that residents came together to help rebuild homes and businesses after the storms.

Driving around with her, it was easy to see why she was able to tell the story. Rebecca seemed to know everyone — and everyone seemed to know Rebecca.

Her perspective offered a glimpse into the informal network that holds the community together: people know who needs help, who has resources, and who can be called when something goes wrong.

Beryl and Melissa tested that network in succession. They also demonstrated its value.

Treasure Beach did not have to create a sense of community after the hurricanes. It already had one. The storms simply showed how quickly that community could mobilize when people needed each other most.

Jakes: The hotel that helped shape Treasure Beach

Treasure Beach's community tourism story is inseparable from the Henzell family, whose roots in the area run far deeper than hospitality. Jakes, the now-iconic hotel founded by Sally Henzell, grew from the family's longstanding connection to Treasure Beach. What began as a small, unconventional property went on to become one of the community's best-known hotels, while the Henzells' involvement has expanded far beyond tourism for decades.

I saw that connection firsthand while driving around the community with Sally's son, Jason Henzell.

At the BREDS Treasure Beach Sports Park, Jason showed me another piece of the community's long-term investment in its young people.

The facility includes a football field, cricket facilities, and courts. A new center is also being developed to provide young people with training and certification through HEART/NSTA Trust. A community clinic is also being developed near the sports park.

The park's origins are tied to the late Donald “Danny Buck” Buchanan, the longtime Member of Parliament for South West St. Elizabeth and former Cabinet minister. When the land became available, Jason and community leader Darin James approached Buchanan about securing it for a sports complex. Buchanan helped facilitate the government's acquisition of the property, which was subsequently leased to BREDS, a Treasure Beach-based nonprofit, for 50 years.

The role Jason plays in that work was apparent as we drove through the park. He stopped to chat with a group of young men and invited them to join the Independence Day boat parade. They knew him, listened when he spoke, and greeted him with respect — the kind earned over years of showing up.

And the Henzells are not the only people doing this work. The Treasure Beach Women's Group is another part of that community-driven effort, with a Friday farmers market among its initiatives, creating a regular space for local vendors to sell produce and other goods. The group also works on women's health, education, skills training, youth programs and environmental initiatives.

The people who came to Treasure Beach

There is another transformation happening alongside all of this.

Treasure Beach has long attracted people looking for something different from Jamaica's traditional resort experience. Increasingly, some of those visitors are not simply passing through. They are staying — buying property, opening businesses, creating art and building lives in the community.

During my visit, I encountered a remarkably eclectic collection of people.

Victoria Pesce Elliott is one of them. An artist and former guidebook writer, she first came to Jamaica when she was just 14 and has been returning ever since. She and her husband, Eric, now own Rainbow Tree Villas, a massive five-bedroom villa in Billy's Bay.

Victoria is tiny, energetic and remarkably youthful for someone who has spent so many decades coming back to Jamaica. She was warm from the moment we met, the kind of person who seems to collect friendships wherever she goes.

Then there is Sue, Jason Henzell's aunt and a former movie costume designer, whose wit and charm don't show how severely Hurricane Melissa affected her.

Ayisha Onuorah, an interior designer whose work has received international attention, was in Treasure Beach with her family for the Independence Day festivities.

Rebecca Wiersma is another longtime resident. She has been in Treasure Beach for more than 30 years and has become deeply woven into the community.

Then there is Sandy Tatham, whose connection to the area is also generational.

Sandy owns Blue Marlin Villas in Great Bay, a pair of rental villas that sit on historic land. During my visit, she told me about artifacts associated with the Redware people that have been found on the property. The Redware people inhabited Jamaica before the Taíno, adding an archaeological layer to a place now known primarily for its beaches, villas and laid-back tourism.

Inside one of the villas, that history continues in a different form. Family portraits and memorabilia line the property, including the Order of Distinction awarded to Sandy's father, Gerald Edward Tatham, a prominent figure in Jamaican agriculture and business.

I also met a Jewish couple: Stephen and Nomi. Stephen is Jamaican, and Nomi is American; the two met in New York and fell in love. For Nomi, it wasn't a hard decision to relocate to Jamaica. They now live in Trelawny, where Stephen coaches sailing in Montego Bay and Nomi works as a photographer. They have a son whom we affectionately call "little big man."

Kirk, a Guyanese photographer and friend of Victoria, also found his way to Treasure Beach.

The collection of people is striking: longtime Jamaican families, fishermen, tourism entrepreneurs, artists, designers, photographers, retirees, foreigners and people with careers that could have taken them almost anywhere.

Yet in Treasure Beach, those distinctions don't seem to create separate worlds. They overlap.

People meet at the beach, support one another's businesses, gather at the farmers market, show up for Independence celebrations and become familiar faces in one another's lives.

That may be one of the secrets to Treasure Beach's evolution. The community is changing, but the newcomers are not necessarily replacing what was there before. They are becoming part of it.