Hotel stock in SVG will double says finance minister

THE HOTEL ROOM stock in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) will double as a result of the construction of new hotels and the addition of rooms at hotels already on the island.

Finance Minister, Camillo Gonsalves spoke to the rapid increase of hotel rooms that will take place on the mainland, this week at a loan signing ceremony for a 250-room hotel to be built in the Mount Wynne/ Peters Hope area.

This government-owned hotel, along with another to be built at Diamond, will contribute a total of 350 rooms to this country.

“Adding 350 rooms to the hotel stock on the mainland is transformative but it is not just the 350 rooms that the government has added. You have to remember the Black Sands hotel at neighbouring Peter’s Hope is going to add 400 rooms, so already you are up to 750 hotel rooms under construction on mainland St Vincent,” he said.

The finance minister added that existing hoteliers are adding rooms to their establishments and potential hoteliers have shared designs that will account for over 50 more hotel rooms on the southern part of the mainland.

He also mentioned the reopening of the Buccama Bay Resort where investors initially intend to open 80 rooms. But Gonsalves said the hotel has a 250-room capacity, which will take the hotel room stock up well over 1000 rooms.

“That effectively doubles the hotel stock on mainland St Vincent but adds another

level, sort of another star. If you had a lot of three star hotels operating in St Vincent and the Grenadines, now you’re going to have four and five-star hotels operating in St Vincent and the Grenadines whereas those types of hotels traditionally in our context, existed as small boutique hotels in the Grenadines,” he said.

Gonsalves noted that this country’s lack of rooms has been an obstacle when trying to attract more flights to St Vincent and the Grenadines.

And once the room stock increases, it will make negotiations go more smoothly with top international airline carriers out of North America, Latin America and the United Kingdom.

“The American Airlines that flies from Miami to St Vincent and the Grenadines seats 127 people. The Virgin Airlines or British Airways airlines that flies from England seats 350 people, so a plane of that size coming with any degree of regularity requires more rooms and when we’ve had conversations with them about coming to St Vincent and the Grenadines, they are very eager to come, but they ask us, how many rooms do you have…,” he said.

The finance minister added that the increase in room stock will also play a major role in creating jobs for people in the country and generating significant economic activity.

Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves also said that the increase in hotel stock will play a major role in the training of people
practicing in the hospitality field.

With specific reference to the tourism institute at Diamond, he said that the 100-room Holiday Inn Express Hotel that the government plans to build close-by can be used as a facility to train the students.

“I want everybody to see the vision which is unfolding before our very eyes. We have to do more work, we have to expand the tourism institute which we have there, but we have a facility which is already occupied by the Community College, but which we will expand further and which will link to the hotel there for training,” the Prime Minister said. “We think we will have students coming from overseas in the OECS countries and we are attracting the interest of an entrepreneurial university from the United Kingdom with which we could partner. We’ll have to say more about that on another occasion.”