Luxury resorts still popular in Britain

With England continuing to be its target market, chairman of Royal Westmoreland John Morphet has reported that the luxury resort is continuing to do exceptionally well.

Morphet delivered the bright news to reporters during the recent opening of its newest villa at #20 Lancaster Drive, which was specially commissioned to mark the 25th anniversary of Royal Westmoreland.

To an audience that included Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Minister of Tourism Kerrie Symmonds, Morphet said the new £4 million villa, was the 276th property to be built at the St James resort.

He pointed out that it was his goal to see “at least another 200 properties” built at the luxury resort. Villa prices range from £400 000 to £5 million.

Morphet said investors from England continued to show significant interest in the properties.

“Our buyers are mainly British. We are doing extremely well with fractional ownership for the moment. People are buying shares in a particular home and they are selling really well,” he said.

“Business is great because we have ploughed a lot of money into marketing and it really works for us. The US market isn’t big for us because it takes an awful lot of money to market…whereas Royal Westmoreland is widely known in England and it’s quite easy to market for us.”

In her brief remarks, the Prime Minister lauded Royal Westmoreland for its achievement.

She said the luxury resort had “added an allure” to the country’s West Coast.

“This development 25 years on has been able to add value to this country by being able to create homes first and foremost for people who want to become Barbadian by choice most of the time.

“That is no small achievement because the contribution of the persons who have bought properties in this development cannot simply be measured by the amount of money that they spend, but more so by the commitment that they bring to the development and the well being of this country,” Mottley said.

“What you have done here, and what others have done across this country but in particular on this coast, is to create an allure, to also create a product that makes sense to those who want to be part and parcel of good living…”

The Prime Minister also used the opportunity to praise her Tourism Minister for his work in helping Barbados to become one of the best tourist destinations in the Caribbean.

“We also recognise that there is the tangible economic benefits, but that in of itself has allowed this gentleman to my left [Symmonds] to be able to be the most recent in the line of tourism ministers to make it clear that the product that Barbados offers is distinctly different from that which is offered in the rest of the eastern and southern, and I dare say the entire Caribbean,” she said. (RB)