Finance Minister hopes private locals will join in management of new hotel

Minister of Finance, Camillo Gonsalves is hopeful that one day a local private company will take over the management of the Holiday Inn, pointing out that the government isn’t interested in running hotels.

“We don’t want to become hoteliers, we want to become developers of St Vincent and the Grenadines…we hope that we can find an appropriate private sector marriage for this hotel sometime in the future,” Gonsalves said.

He made these comments during the hand over of the new 93-room Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites at Diamond on Saturday, November 16, 2024. The government currently operates two hotels- the Cobblestone Inn in Kingstown, and now the Holiday Inn Express.

Gonsalves explained that the government set up a local company called Yurinim to manage this hotel, but even though they received several offers from private companies, all of them backed out at the last minute mainly because they didn’t like the rules involved.

He noted the expansion in room stock at some local hotels such as Hotel Alexandrina, which added 20 new rooms; Myah Suites with 30 new rooms; and others like Beachcombers; and Young Island, that are improving after being affected by Hurricane Beryl. He said he hopes that these new developments, along with the Holiday Inn Express, will attract more tourists and airlines, ultimately boosting the
hospitality industry as a whole.

Gonsalves noted that tourism in St. Vincent and the Grenadines has faced challenges due to the absence of an International Airport. However, now that the Argyle International Airport is in operation the country can accommodate larger aircraft, which has helped increase the number of available hotel rooms.

He stated further that at one point, the government recognised that it needed to step up and help increase the number of hotel rooms until private businesses could catch up.

“We thought that if we can establish, at each value point, an important brand name that would do some of the heavy lifting for us in terms of advertising, we would play a role, not only in increasing room stock, but in attracting people and paying for the advertising, of the destination; St Vincent and the Grenadines

Gonsalves made note of Sandals Resort as an example of a project the government could not afford to build themselves. Instead, they brought the company to this country creating jobs for many in the process.

“We played a very important role in bringing them, inviting them, creating incentives for them, and hooking them on St Vincent and the Grenadines as a destination to spend US$250 million- to build the finest luxury resort anywhere in the Caribbean,” he outlined.

He said the government’s investment in the Holiday Inn stood at EC$60 million and the plant is expected to attract a lot of new customers to local clubs and restaurants.