Entertainment sector takes COVID-like hit from Hurricane Melissa

 

Event promoter Ibrahim Konteh says the current economic fallout in the entertainment sector following Hurricane Melissa is like the severe downturn experienced when COVID-19 brought the industry to a standstill.

 

Speaking Friday morning on TVJ's Smile Jamaica, Mr. Konteh said several major events scheduled for the hardest hit parishes have been postponed or cancelled. 

 

He noted that some sponsors have already indicated that they will be unable to support upcoming entertainment events as their businesses are still reeling from the hurricane's devastation.

 

"The impact has been really significant so some sponsors are saying, 'Boy, IB, has to be a next year or we have to look at revising in terms of our sponsorship spend for the Christmas period as our sales have been hit.' And as you can imagine, their marketing spend is based on their sales, and there hasn't been any sales," he stressed. 

 

Mr. Konteh said the decline in entertainment events is expected to have a ripple effect on other business sectors.

 

"It's close to COVID, because what persons have to understand, when you think of a party, you just think of somebody buying a ticket and going there to have fun, but don't understand that the entertainment industry contributes 5% towards our GDP and the direct employment is massive. So we're talking not just the sound engineers, not talking not just the DJs, the cleaning companies and the indirect employment as well as it relates to, you know, the hairdressers, barbershops, the clothing stores," he explained.

 

At the same time, he said street dances are slowly returning but turnout remains low and the quality of liquor being sold is not high end.

 

Mr. Konteh also believes that the reduced number of events in parishes not severely affected by the hurricane may be linked to a sense of survivor's guilt.

 

"I remember the first time I went out, I went to Janga's and I felt guilty about posting about it. I was like, boy, you know it doesn't feel right that I'm partying and others don't even have roof over their heads and so forth. But it was someone that made the point to me that you know - and I remember it was the prime minister's words as well - that we have to recover. The economy has to recover, and a huge part of the recovery is also our entertainment industry. So it was survivor's guilt. So most of us, my contemporaries, we said you know we were going to hold off on posting any flyers, marketing our events and really focus on recovery and then now, all events or at least most events I've seen marketed has some sort of relief effort," he noted.