I have been off the island for a few days, so it has taken a little while to catch-up on the news. It was with absolute incredulity I read a Nation headline dated Monday 17th September 2007 emblazoned ‘Gems Glow – Mascoll: Properties can now turn a profit’. The article went on ‘The huge investment Government placed in the controversial GEMS hotel project has paid off where some of the properties can now be sold at a profit’.
A ‘profit’ after what! After writing-off what could be hundreds of millions of dollars of debt?
I will accept that the land value of the properties may have increased, but certainly not the properties themselves. You only have to take a look at Blue Horizon Hotel to see evidence of that fact.
What about the 20-30 rooms that are still left derelict and untouched?
It is very difficult for serious tourism industry players to follow the varied and at times 360 degree opinions of Mr Mascoll, but these comments beg disbelief. To draw the conclusions he has arrived at in this article must mean that he has studied in detail the latest audited accounts of Hotels and Resorts Ltd., something sadly the hard pressed Barbadian taxpayer has not been fortunate to. Mr Mascoll also made no mention of exactly where the funds from the sale of Eastry House and Silver Rock Hotel have gone too either. A question that the Minister responsible for the GEMS project has skilfully managed to avoid for sometime!
To infer that the GEMS project is glowing is a gross insult to every Barbadian, whether he or she has even a basic understanding of the tourism industry.
Adrian Loveridge
27 September 2007





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