At present people are saying negative things about the plans for Sandals Resort in Tobago. So, let's examine this situation from a contrarian point of view:
Short-Term–If the hotel is not built, then there wouldn't be any jobs for the 2,000 (estimated) construction workers over a two-year period. Note, say these workers are paid a very conservative figure of $5,000 monthly, this represents $10,000,000 ($5 K X 2,000) per month and $120 million per year injected directly into the Tobago economy for the men and women working there in terms of rental accommodation, food purchases, car rentals–a whole ripple effect takes place. Then there is the indirect spin-off to Trinidad via sales to TCL, Bestcrete, USL, contractors, and hardwares. Of course, our Government then benefits from additional income tax and VAT inflows which can be used to build more schools, hospitals etc.
In the Medium-Term–The hotels would have been built, construction workers sent home, but now replacement employment would not be created for direct and indirect employees (maintenance workers). One would imagine with 740 rooms, these employment positions should be at least 2,000. Again, say a conservative $10,000,000/month. So ten years after the hotels have been built, citizens of T&T would have forgone revenue of $120 million/year by ten years, or 1.2 billion paid to these employees, plus residual income to the Government regarding income taxes and VAT.
Additionally, with the Sandals brand domiciled in Tobago this would definitely lift our tourism profile and we would now have more cruise ships visiting, other hotels being built, and many more tourists coming–adding new options for all types of businesses to be established.
Bottom line: owners of Sandals are business people who have to borrow significant tranches of money with the associated risks to build these hotels and will negotiate hard to protect themselves from possible downsides. However, this is the case with any new investment. Just ask the Government how much revenue they collect from oil/gas companies once prices drop below certain benchmarks.....none. However, right now, this figure–$0.00–is exactly how much we earn from not proceeding with this new opportunity. I would advise our Government: negotiate hard, forget naysayers, but proceed with this opportunity.
Roger Gordon
Cascade