Montego Bay, city in northwestern Jamaica, administrative center of Saint James Parish, Cornwall County, on Montego Bay at the mouth of the Montego River, on the northwestern coast. An important port and rail terminus, Montego Bay ships sugar, bananas, coffee, rum, ginger, dyewood, and hides. The city has sugar-milling and liqueur-processing industries, and shoes, ice, and aerated water are produced. The city is a major tourist resort and the heart of the so-called Gold Coast, with fine beaches, golf courses, yacht basins, and other sports facilities. Marine gardens with oyster beds are nearby in the offshore Bogue Islands. Tourism developed around the turn of the 20th century; nearby Doctor's Cave and White Sands soon became centers for winter visitors. Traces of early Spanish occupation may be seen nearby. An Arawak village here was visited by Christopher Columbus in 1494, and the later settlement was called Manteca Bay. Population (1991) 83,446.
