The two towns in Central Leeward — Layou and Barrouallie — will see some improvement to their “aesthetics” as the government builds a 250-room hotel in Mt Wynne, located between the two towns.
“Because our view is once the tourists drive from Argyle to the leeward side to spend their week there, it is most likely, if they venture off the hotel premises, they will be venturing off in the neighbouring towns of Layou and Barrouallie and not coming back to Kingstown regularly,” Minister of Finance, Camillo Gonsalves said.
He said that the hotel at Mt Wynne also has a facility to dock by sea, giving guest the option of arriving or departing via sea.
“But, we intend to upgrade the Layou and Barrouallie towns as well, aesthetically, and make the residents of Layou and Barrouallie better equipped to attract and host hospitality activities there so that when somebody leaves Mt Wynne-Peter’s Hope or when somebody leaves Black Sands [Resort] and they say to their concierge, ‘Where can I get some local fish?’ or ‘Where is your local bar where I can get some of the local flavour?’ or ‘Where can I go to a local dance club?’, that concierge will point them to the towns of Layou and Barrouallie to make sure that there is local activity, economic activity in the neighbouring towns.”
He said that the government has intentionally not gone the all-inclusive route.
“Because while they have their benefits, we hope to attract people who will not only spend their money in the hotel but will spend their money in the neighbouring communities and we are trying our best, coming relatively late to this mass tourism game, we are trying our best to learn from the best practices and also the mistakes from the tourism developments in neighbouring islands.”
The minister was speaking Tuesday at a ceremony to sign a US$50 million loan deal with Taiwan for hotel construction.
“If you have 1,000 rooms and you have two people staying in a room, you get a sense of the increased numbers of tourists who will be coming to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, once this construction is complete,” he said.
This is a joke, no? Neither town has a restaurant or anything more than ramshackle rum shops.
But, both have plenty of skettels, young and old, so this could well boast the local sex trade industry.
LOL….BEN WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT SKETTELS ….OH LAWD !!! LOL
“If you have 1,000 rooms and you have two people staying in a room, you get a sense of the increased numbers of tourists who will be coming to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, once this construction is complete,”
If, is small word which may well prove to be an important word.
When Buccament Bay Resort was open they filled it by giving away holidays to people who were selling there theft scheme and to tour operators personnel, and to journalists.
Local politicians were encouraged to dine and free load there, and they did.
They never had fully paid occupancy, the whole thing was a sham to create an illusion of success, which was the furthest from the truth.
Getting people to fill a 1000 room hotel on an island such as Saint Vincent is almost an impossible task. Any deal struck with operation companies will reflect this, they are not stupid otherwise they would be building and investing themselves. Instead they will take an advantage of a very business ignorant government.
Generally speaking there is absolutely no night life for any visitors to enjoy in SVG. WHen Camello speaks of adding to the aesthetics of the two rural towns after 18 years in office it seems he is more than ever feels that vincentian people are a bunch pf jack asses. One just need to following the rantings father and sons to recognise the contempt they have the vincentian people. The thing is it will take substantive infrastructure development by the private sector to make any business worthwhile. Anything the governemt does rigt now on its own is bound to fail. The shenanegins of ralph Camelo and Juian is evident off the evi that pervades the societ. So in the midst of all our problems. what does the government
This plan is so vague that it sounds like a hoax. What specifically would be done and what is the time frame. If the hotel in diamond would be done first and the one in mount Wynne is projected to take 2 years to complete then this seems like 4 years from now. This is going to be promised again for the 2025 election.
I get tired of all these development projections from certain few in the government when they do not even understand the fundamentals of anything they are doing.
“House built on a weak foundation will not stand, oh no!”
There is so much we would have to do to make this a reality that Camillo and his father obviously cannot comprehend. Are they going to be able to institute fair business practices instead of allowing the cheating the tourists? Sanitary standards? Walkable sidewalks and places where vans can stop and safely transport tourists? Take measures so tourists will not get robbed and raped?
All of this would take money, money, money and the ULP are too busy spending the borrowed money on themselves and bribes for votes thier lives of priveledge, luxury trips overseas, lumber and cement for target voters, etc… If they did “facelift” these towns do they not think the neglected towns will not feel resentful?