Those hotels. Good, bad or ugly?

Integrating big hotels into rustic situations is risky business. As, the Caribbean by its very nature - remote (still), is also comprised of non-wealthy and large pockets of people who struggle to make ends meet. Mix into that culture cash rich visitors with a temporary residential agenda and you've got a management issue in the offing. Add several new large hotels on top on a base of several large failing ones and you got a recipe for - skilled management.

Tobago, our focus for the next few lines is about to welcome at least three new hotels; a Marriot (at Rocky Point), a Dreams (at Kilgywn) and if the plans for Sandals Resort in Buccoo matures, an all inclusive to dominate all future inclusives. r, et has nothing negative to say on this next spate of hoel development. The old plants are just that - walking dead, edifices of an earlier time and generally will not take retro-fitting well, SDG Agenda 2030 in mind.

ET’s views are aligned with the hopes and aspirations of the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association and the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce, both representing the collective that own and run the Tobago tourism sector. The vision held by them/us is the chunk of change delivered into the local economy over the next five years will catalyze, the island’s dormant agri-sector, invigorate work for the trades, profession and transport sectors. Broadly speaking there should be a general resurgence for labour - which should make it easier for the THA to get out of the job-making business.

The reason for the present situation, asserted many times by Chris James when he was the head of the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association as well as the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce - has to do with the Tobago House of Assembly’s demonstrated folly back in 2007 thereabouts and to create cushy government funded jobs, make Direct Foreign Investment unattractive to non-nationals. The THA also took it unto themselves to enter the tourism sectors by snatching up prize niches via state owned (and run) companies.

There are also equally convincing reasons why new big hotels may not prove out, that is prove sustainable. Impact to the natural environment for one, impact to the social fabric of the Tobago villages (communities) for the other. Arguably, there is nothing to say the new actors have bad intentions. They do not, they cannot. Not with watchdogs like the Environmental Management Authority and NGOs at hand. The real problem are entrenched negative externalities, likes of which new hotels simply cannot understand until they take the bite.

The politically correct way to apprise these new hoteliers is to paraphrase the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce who in an internal study (Let’s Invigorate Tobago, 2017) concluded that the majority of youth, as well as a significant number of workers over 40, were functionally illiterate, numerically dysfunctional and prone to approach work with an ethic not conducive to productivity.

Add to this the appalling mode of operation practised by public workers, through having to work with sub-standard systems and conditions or simply, not understanding their roles in the apparatus of State. The upshot overall is, State is lacking when it comes to being ready for business.

Sitting on top of all that; Government of Trinidad and Tobago is infamous for getting a few things - albeit big things, wrong for Tobago tourism. They have made it decidedly unpleasant for US/CA-based visitors wanting to see Tobago. These unfortunates need to (more rule than exception) lug their bags across to the Tobago terminal, stand in line with the exuberant local punters trying to get a seat on the plane - and allowing they understand the messaging, board the correct flight or grab a seat from the more experienced travel-weary locals.

Other negatives outside the control of even the best hotels. Safety on the roads, while mainly a civic issue, lends to a certain degree of insecurity. Which reflects on diminished traveler urge to visit new hotels no matter how posh. Factor into that a deadly cocktail of (too) many long weekends, the myriad parties, weak regulation of traffic and in cases where accidents require finding fault/justice ligitation in this country simply drags on and on. And not cheaply.

Crime. Crime benefits from the same ecosystem of unfairness to those so afflicted. Get the picture? This is one area that needs no coverage. Trinidad and Tobago has been leading the news in its poor handling of criminal activity. New hotels may want to use a forensic approach to their entire business plan including - forestalling crime. The hotelier option however will need to be innovative. They’ll need to support the police as is expected, but play more active roles in the communities, especially among youth.