The Adrian Loveridge Column – Shifting Tourism Gear
Adrian Loveridge
While it was branded as a Raffles property, my wife and I were fortunate enough to have stayed at the resort on Canouan Island. Quite frankly for me, it was one of the most enjoyable holidays experienced in my decades of being involved in the tourism industry. Their room rates at the time were way above our budget, so we booked through a company called Luxury Link which offers an auction option, where lower than normal prices could be bid.
The concept goes back to something we have been trying to convince many of our restaurants over the years, notably revenue control -now widely practiced in all areas of the tourism industry. It’s not rocket science. Clearly there is no profit in a vacant room, unoccupied dinner table or empty airline seat and so on.
The initial attraction of staying at Raffles Canouan was driven by not totally believing that the legendary service delivered by other Raffles properties, around the world could be replicated on a tiny island of a fraction just over five square miles in the Caribbean Sea, with all the challenges that brings. While there were clearly some small deficiencies when directly comparing to the Asian locations, as mentioned before, from our standpoint it was a wonderful stay.
Raffles had sent a number of staff to their Singapore location to give on job training and they returned with such enthusiasm and beneficial experience that it rubbed off to members who were not so fortunate to have travelled.
After Raffles withdrew the property rebranded under the name of Pink Sands Club and now another Asian based luxury hotel group, Mandarin Oriental, has taken over the management and will re-open on 1st November 2017. The current facility only has 26 suites and twelve three and four bedroom villas all with ocean views. The villas all have private pools and there are onsite restaurants, an outdoor infinity pool health club.
According to the press release Mandarin Oriental will also operate the new Residences which are scheduled to open near the hotel in 2020.
Private jet transfers will be offered from Barbados, St. Lucia and the newly opened Argyll airport on St. Vincent.
Some may fear that this will be added competition to our own iconic Sandy Lane Hotel but I seriously doubt it. If anything it will add another reason to travel to the Caribbean and help fill those first and business class seats, at critical higher revenue, which airlines essentially need to help maintain and grow airlift.
Hong Kong based Mandarin Oriental currently manage truly luxury awarding wining hotels in 30 locations across Asia, Europe, Africa, Middle East and the Americas. This is their first venture in the Caribbean.
I will leave readers with a direct quote from their website which seems to sum up the company’s stated objectives ‘Stretching from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and beyond, Asia is steeped in spirituality and Oriental hospitality. From the Temples and Buddha’s of Thailand to the cherry blossom of Japan, the sights never fail to delight and traditional lifestyles meld with the modern in the bustling cities’.
Barbados Underground 
Maybe you learned something…
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Adrian does not bother to tell us exactly what made his Canouan experience so enjoyable, but for me, it hardly matters.The idea of offering luxury tourism in the midst of tropical Third World squalor is, I believe, fundamentally flawed and unsustainable.
Barbados has above-average tourist resources, but its shortcomings are obvious. The beaches and roads are too narrow, The local population is too inattentive to aesthetics. There is little understanding of proper land use planning, proper landscape design, proper maintenance of buildings and machinery, and so on. Everything looks careless, untidy or unkempt.
The British have kept Sandy Lane going, but how long can that last? I would like to see an adjustment of our ambitions. Go for middle class tourism, based on affordable accommodations. Abandon the $1,000-per-night suites that only the elite one-per-centers can afford.
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Under the topic of “little understanding of proper land use planing” , who could have ever allowed a large quantity of old rusty shipping containers to be placed immediately next to Pebbles Beach that overlooks Carlisle Bay. What a ugly site.
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will it be branded as Mandarin Hotel?
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Leslie, YES! as I understand a Mandarin Oriental – the first in the Caribbean.
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According to an old article in the Nation, the consulting team for the Tourism Master Plan recommended a series of new investments to help revitalize the tourist industry.
The recommendations included: a Fight For Freedom Interpretive Centre ($35 million); a Discover Barbados Centre at the Bridgetown Port ($30 million); a new sugar museum ($10 million); a road signage program ($7.5 million); make Oistins a heritage centre ($4.5 million); construct air bridges at the Airport ($3 million); train safety and security personnel ($3 million over ten years).
Other proposals were: obtain Category 1 status for the Airport ($1.3 million); enhance the Bay Street corridor ($1.25 million); refurbish Morgan Lewis Mill and environs ($1.2 million); develop a High Visibility Tourism Awareness Caravan ($1 million); create an investor package for a conference hotel ($500 000); and assess heritage sites ($400 000).
How many of these ideas have been implemented?
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@ chad99999 August 30, 2017 at 12:02 PM
“The recommendations included: a Fight For Freedom Interpretive Centre ($35 million); a Discover Barbados Centre at the Bridgetown Port ($30 million); a new sugar museum ($10 million); a road signage program ($7.5 million); make Oistins a heritage centre ($4.5 million); construct air bridges at the Airport ($3 million); train safety and security personnel ($3 million over ten years).
Other proposals were: obtain Category 1 status for the Airport ($1.3 million); enhance the Bay Street corridor ($1.25 million); refurbish Morgan Lewis Mill and environs ($1.2 million); develop a High Visibility Tourism Awareness Caravan ($1 million); create an investor package for a conference hotel ($500 000); and assess heritage sites ($400 000).
Chaddie, come on man, we expect better from you! You are capable of making a much higher level of ‘critical’ analysis.
Can’t you see that list of recommendations is just a sea of wishy-washy thinking by a bunch of academic jokers?
What the hell are “a Fight For Freedom Interpretive Centre ($35 million); a High Visibility Tourism Awareness Caravan; an investor package for a conference hotel ($500 000); and assess heritage sites ($400 000)”?
Just a bunch of academic clowns performing at the Bajan Tourism circus to justify the millions paid in consultancy fees to the fatted calf kith and kin and political cronies feeding from the trough labeled ‘Full of easy taxpayers’ money’.
Who will be financing these airy-fairy pie-in-the-sky projects? The taxpayers and NIS contributors with their Mickey-mouse dollar ponzi scheme in the making?
The only one worthy of any meaningful consideration is the long overdue plan to make GAIA eligible for classification as a Category 1 international airport in order to add value to its chances of being privatized and operated by some ‘specialized’ foreign entity.
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David
I haven’t studied the economics of Jamaican tourism and cannot comment on the dollar figures used in that letter, but I am highly skeptical about the general argument that the Jamaican government has overspent on tourism infrastructure.
People forget that ports, roads, airports, airliners, hotels and restaurants built for tourists are also heavily used by and for the benefit of local citizens and businesses.
Similarly, devaluation and other economic policies that benefit tourism also benefit other export industries, including export agriculture.
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MNK
You may disagree with some of the specific proposals in the Tourism Master Plan but there is little doubt that Barbados needs new tourist attractions.
The growth rate in arrivals has been sluggish for more than 10 years.
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@Chad
We have no debate unless we are made aware the breakout of the infrastructure expenditure.
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