New management company says improvements at Harrison’s Cave delayed by pandemic

Barbados’ famed attraction Harrison’s Cave will re-open to the public in a month, but without any of the promised $9 million upgrades.

Chukka Caribbean Adventures, Jamaica’s largest nature adventure tour operator took over the management of the attraction effective December 1, 2020, with management promising a multimillion dollar investment to transform the Harrison’s Cave into a once-in-a-lifetime experience for locals and visitors.

While no timeline was given for the upgrade, recent research by Barbados TODAY revealed that the promised phase one redevelopment plan at the St Thomas location that would include new features such as an interactive green monkey experience, a suspended aerial walkway and a canopy zipline had not been done over the past several months to coincide with its reopening.

Some tourism industry players have raised concern about the lack of promised development at the location, questioning why the company did not take the “down time” during the pandemic to upgrade the facility.

They have also questioned why no date had been announced for the reopening of the island’s major tourist attraction despite government declaring that the island was again open for visitors.

“We were looking forward to seeing at least a start to those developments. We are planning to reopen the country to tourism again and if what you are saying is right, that the planned investments have not taken place yet, then that is unacceptable,” said one industry player, who did not want to be named.

“I would think that after all the hype about this new company coming to run the cave that they would use the ‘down period’ to carry out the upgrades. Also, when will the facility re-open to the public?” he said.

Barbados TODAY reached out to Country Manager of CHUKKA Barbados Andrea Franklin, and in a statement on Thursday she promised that the St Thomas attraction would re-open on July 2, 2021, “in time for the start of summer”.

Franklin said the re-opening was timed to support the relaunch of the tourism sector for the 2021 summer period and allow the operation to slowly ramp up in time for the upcoming winter season.

“The team is looking forward to welcoming Barbadians and visitors back to the cave after having been closed since March 23, 2020 due to COVID-19,” she said.

She said the reservations process will begin by the middle of this month, and open with a staff complement of approximately 40 people, made up of over 50 per cent from Caves of Barbados Ltd (CBL), the former operators of the attraction.

She further explained that the operation will restart with a three-day schedule, as they closely monitor the gradual return of visitors to the island.

“As the demands of the business dictate, we will review this schedule but we are hopeful that by the start of the upcoming winter season we can be close to the operational schedule that we have been accustomed to before the pandemic and this can then be matched by an increase in staffing levels,” she said.

In relation to the planned investment, Franklin did not give a set date for when work begin, but would only say in the statement that the planned plant upgrade has been “delayed” due to the pandemic.

“However, work is expected to begin very shortly, and will proceed while the attraction continues to be open to the public,” she added.

One concerned tourism industry stalwart who did not want to be identified, said he suspected CHUKKA would not do anything until they see people start to come back to this country.

“I believe they are looking at just opening up the cave again as is and that defies the whole process,” he told Barbados TODAY in a recent interview.

“Obviously COVID has affected everybody, but the Government of Barbados on November 30, 2020, handed this lease over the CHUKKA, and we are now six months on and still nothing,” he said.

“I understand they will be opening the exact same way they closed. So we handed the national attraction on a platter to a foreign entity. I understand COVID has had an impact, but I think it should go back out to tender if they are going to open as the exact same thing . . . you can’t have your whole cake baked and iced and cut up for you and just handed to you on a platter,” he added.

Following a tendering process last year, CHUKKA Caribbean Adventures (Barbados) Ltd was chosen from among four contenders to manage the operations of Harrison’s Cave.

The Jamaica-based company was formed in 1983 and also operates nature-adventure attractions in their home base of Jamaica as well as Belize, Turks and Caicos and the Dominican Republic.

During a media update late last month, Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) Senator Rudy Grant said he was aware that land-based attractions were doing what they could to make the operations ready for the return of visitors, especially for the winter period.

“Our expectation is that by the winter season we will see most, if not all of those businesses back to operating again,” he said.

When asked to comment specifically on the state of readiness of the Harrison’s Cave location, Grant said with the cruise ships set to return by the middle of this month, that location was “getting ready to participate in the cruise business when it comes back”.

Stating that he had discussions with Franklin recently, Senator Grant said he was given the assurance that some refurbishment would take place to enhance that product offering.

“Our expectation is that we will see some aspect of that during the winter period. But once the cruise business restarts and business is starting to [pick up] I am told that Harrison’s Cave will be in operation,” Grant said then.
(BT)