Beachside chat: Holetowners mull what could be lost, gained from development

Visitors and residents gathered on the beach at Holetown on Tuesday evening to share their hopes and concerns about the island’s coastal future, as pressures from tourism and development continue to reshape the island’s prized west coast 400 years after its colonisation.

The event, held near Surfside during the busy Christmas season, was organised by Preserve Barbados, a new civic initiative aimed at capturing the views of both residents and long-term visitors on the island’s future direction, particularly its coastline.

Founder Susan Cole said the gathering was designed to highlight what she described as a shared set of values between Barbadians and the visitors who return to the island repeatedly, especially during the Christmas season.

Cole said Preserve Barbados is a “new organisation with the inspiration to collect information from local people and also visitors… to find out what is important to the visitors, the tourists of the island”.

Early conversations suggested there was significant overlap in what both groups valued, particularly in relation to the west coast.

“The local people have certain values and they want certain things for the island, the coastline, the west coast especially, and the visitors want the same thing,” she said. “That’s what I’m going to try and bring out of this event to get people to speak and say what’s important to them.”

The informal, beachside setting was intentional, Cole said, to create a space for conversation outside traditional consultation forums.

“This event is kind of a place to all come together and hopefully people will chit-chat to each other,” she said, noting that visitors often cite the warmth and everyday interactions with Barbadians as a major reason for returning.

“People don’t say good morning and get on the bus and say hi, how are you?” she said, referencing life abroad. “We don’t have that.”

According to Cole, Holetown was chosen because of its central role in west coast life and tourism.

“Holetown is like the tourist capital of Barbados, not Bridgetown,” she said, pointing to its beaches, nearby residences and steady flow of foot traffic. “It’s an easy way to grab people because to reach visitors is very hard.”

She said she spent days walking the coastline speaking directly with tourists, explaining that traditional outreach methods were ineffective.

“They don’t all read the same newspaper. They’re not from all the same place, so I had to go beach to beach to talk to people face to face.”

Cole, who said Preserve Barbados has been operating for less than a year, stressed that the initiative is not political and is intentionally unaffiliated.

“It’s important not to be affiliated because then it’s not unbiased anymore,” she said. “It’s good to have no influence and just to be.”

Chiming in, Victor Lewis, a social activist, said the discussion was part of a broader concern about the direction of national development.

“We are concerned about the direction in which this country is going in terms of its development,” Lewis said, adding that tourism stakeholders should be part of shaping that path.

“We believe that tourists constitute part of this group that will determine the direction of Barbados in terms of its growth,” he said. “We are not just an economy, but we are a society.”

Lewis warned that development decisions must consider cultural and social impacts, not only economic returns.

“There are so many other areas in this country that we are seeing development that is questionable,” he said. “We want to at least offer a voice that would influence in a direction where we can see it being better for Barbadians and for the world at large.”

Pointing to Barbados’s shift from agriculture to tourism, Lewis said development must serve both residents and those who choose to visit.

“Our focus must not be one of selfishness,” he said. “We have to develop for a world that would want to come and visit us and share this experience here in Barbados.” (SM)