Shas­tri Boodan

The Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce (CCIC) yes­ter­day ap­plaud­ed San­dals Re­sorts In­ter­na­tion­al on the an­nounce­ment of a EC$500 mil­lion Beach­es fam­i­ly re­sort in St Vin­cent and the Grenadines.

CCIC Pres­i­dent Bal­dath Ma­haraj said this ini­tia­tive will fur­ther strength­en the Caribbean tourism sec­tor and pro­vide sig­nif­i­cant re­gion­al op­por­tu­ni­ties.

Ma­haraj said the planned Beach­es Sit Vin­cent and the Grenadines re­sort is ex­pect­ed to cre­ate near­ly 2,000 per­ma­nent jobs and is a pow­er­ful demon­stra­tion of the San­dals ef­fect and the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of strate­gic hos­pi­tal­i­ty in­vest­ment.

Ma­haraj said, “The in­cred­i­ble suc­cess of San­dals St Vin­cent and the Grenadines, which shat­tered in­dus­try records, un­der­scores the eco­nom­ic vi­tal­i­ty that a world class brand brings to a na­tion. The re­port­ed im­pact from a boost in GDP and for­eign ex­change earn­ings to the 412 per cent in­crease in in­ter­na­tion­al flight ca­pac­i­ty serves as a com­pelling case study for tourism-de­pen­dent economies through­out the re­gion.”

Ma­haraj, who was in­vit­ed to at­tend the sign­ing cer­e­mo­ny for the Beach­es Re­sort in St Vin­cent on Tues­day, said he spoke di­rect­ly and con­fi­den­tial­ly with San­dals ex­ec­u­tive chair­man, Adam Stew­art, about the path for­ward.

“Wit­ness­ing this lev­el of con­fi­dence and in­vest­ment in a sis­ter Caribbean na­tion re­in­forces a painful truth, while St Vin­cent em­braces a tourism re­nais­sance, Trinidad and To­ba­go risks falling fur­ther be­hind.”

He said the Cham­ber would be pleased if re­newed en­gage­ment re­gard­ing the pro­posed San­dals Re­sort in To­ba­go is con­sid­ered, but strong­ly urges the gov­ern­ment to act de­ci­sive­ly.

He said “The time for po­lit­i­cal pos­tur­ing is over. The coun­try is in ur­gent need of for­eign ex­change and sus­tain­able, large scale em­ploy­ment. I urge our gov­ern­ment to put pol­i­tics and un­nec­es­sary de­lays aside and im­me­di­ate­ly restart prop­er, trans­par­ent, and fo­cused dis­cus­sions with San­dals Re­sorts In­ter­na­tion­al.

The St Vin­cent blue­print shows clear­ly what we stand to gain. To­ba­go is ready, and the na­tion can no longer af­ford to hes­i­tate on an op­por­tu­ni­ty of this mag­ni­tude for our tourism sec­tor and over­all eco­nom­ic health.”

Ma­haraj said the CCIC re­mains com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing any ini­tia­tive that promis­es sus­tain­able job cre­ation, in­creas­es in­ter­na­tion­al air­lift that can­not be done by re­gion­al air­lines and stim­u­lates lo­cal en­ter­prise, from agri­cul­ture to pro­fes­sion­al ser­vices, across the twin is­land re­pub­lic.

“This in­creased air­lift would be suf­fi­cient to ser­vice the ex­ist­ing ho­tels and Airbnb. We com­mend the con­tin­ued vi­sion of the San­dals Group and en­cour­age all lo­cal stake­hold­ers to em­brace the po­ten­tial of such trans­for­ma­tive projects,” said Ma­haraj.