Trench Town Culture Yard wants more visitors through its doors, but its founder says that will require greater support, accommodation for tourists and a renewed effort to shake the community’s negative stigma.

Michael Smith, 70, who was born and raised in Trench Town and became a musician after growing up in Culture Yard, said the attraction has seen a steady decline in visitors.

“Since we started the Trench Town Culture Yard it has evolved and gone through different stages but right now there is less and less people coming in for the past year or two,” he said. Smith said the vision for the space began decades before it officially opened in 2000.