Former Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy has criticised the Government for delays in the Sam Lord’s Castle hotel project as he suggested the administration should focus on tourism to get Barbados out of its “rut”.
Speaking at the Democratic Labour Party’s (DLP) joint branch meeting on Sunday at Goalkeeper Bar in Licorish Village, St Michael, Sealy said the hotel should have been ready for Barbados’ hosting of the 41st edition of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association’s (CHTA) Caribbean Travel Marketplace from May 9 to 11.
“The Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association is having its conference in Barbados for the first time in a while…. The delegates should be able to see new product [but] they got to go on a construction site to see what Sam Lord’s Castle will be,” he said of the project which is being undertaken by the Barbados Government at a cost of US$240 million with funding from China.
In September 2022, then Minister of Tourism Senator Lisa Cummins announced that the St Philip property would open its doors by year end, but that date passed without the project being completed.
A revised opening date of early 2023 was also subsequently changed, with no new date officially announced.
“Sam Lord’s should have been finished already. We [DLP] negotiated that loan with the EXIM Bank out of China – US$170 million and it was [at] two per cent. I can guarantee you, this government has not got a single loan at that rate like the one that [former Minister of Finance] Chris Sinckler and myself, supported by the staff at the Ministry of Finance and Stuart Layne from BTI [Barbados Tourism Investment]…negotiated. They will never get one like it at all, I guarantee it.”
Sealy stressed that more must be done to support the local tourism product, given the need for Barbados to generate higher foreign exchange earnings without borrowing from international entities.
(SB)
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