Leveraging the creative potential of Downtown Kingston through technology

Our strategy will guide the creation of a new digital service aiming at supporting and developing the creative scene in Downtown Kingston.

Paul Owens

Co-Founder and Director

Paul Owens is a leading international advisor and practitioner in cultural policy and creative economy. He is Co-Founder of BOP, and alongside his fellow directors he has pioneered now well-established methods to measure the impact of cultural policy.

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LOCATION

Central & South America

CLIENT

Inter-American Development Bank - IDB

SECTOR

Projects Sectors

EXPERTISE

Research, Data and Insight, Strategy and Policy Design

Designated a UNESCO Creative City of Music since 2015, the capital of Jamaica has a rich creative heritage, also in other creative fields apart from music.

However, some local creatives and artists, in particular those located in Downtown Kingston, are currently struggling to leverage on this heritage.

The Kingston Connect Project was initiated by Kingston Creative and aims to integrate new technologies into the creative sector in Kingston, Jamaica and to generate social and economic value for cultural assets in response to the lack of market access for artists, cultural practitioners, and creative entrepreneurs, particularly those working in creative tourism enterprises. Apart from Kingston Creative the project is supported by the Urban Development Corporation and the Inter-American Development Bank.

BOP Consulting was comissioned to do conduct a market assessment and develop a strategy, which will form a solid foundation for the planned services. The strategy aimed to address four main areas:

Lack of market access tools;
Focus on tourism-focused creative businesses in Downtown Kingston;
Need for new digital technologies to add economic and social value;
Enable entrepreneurs to access a wider market.

Our approach involved the analysis of three main pillars including technological trends, consultations with local stakeholders, and tourism trends to inform our strategy development.

First, three overarching technological trends were identified: virtual worlds, digital wallets, and platform cooperatives. These technological trends were reflected in tourism trends which also focused on digital means of booking, making payments, and accessing information about the local community, partially due to the preferences of younger generations.

Based on these trends and consultation with key stakeholders including local creatives, we developed a strategy focused on three key tools:

Immersive map to allow tourists to discover personalised areas of interest and recommendations in regards to local retail, F&B, and entertainment in the cultural and creative sector of Downtown Kingston;
Frictionless and borderless transactions to enable seamless and easily accessible trade on- and off-line for Kingston’s creative businesses;
Cooperative e-commerce platforms to provide a consolidated place for all Kingston’s creative businesses, goods, and services co-owned and co-governed by Kingston’s creatives and entrepreneurs.

While these tools can help grow tourism-focused creative businesses in Kingston, it is essential for local businesses to be actively involved and supported to ensure that Kingston’s full cultural and creative offer can be accessed by those around the world.