A 750-room Sandals Resorts is earmarked for Tobago, as Government seeks to make the island a tourism destination in a bid to generate revenue, jobs and foreign exchange, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley says. He made the announcement while delivering the feature address at a political meeting in St Joseph on Tuesday.
Rowley told supporters Government had come up with a tourism plan to diversify the economy and take the country out of the economic gloom it was facing. With Sandals opening up doors in Antigua, Bahamas, Grenada, Barbados, Jamaica, St Lucia and Turks and Caicos, he said it was time Tobago become an undisputed vacation experience to the world.
During his recent trip to Washington, Rowley said he held discussions with Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) president, Luis Alberto Moreno, “who is eager to provide funding for that.”
The IDB was so excited to start the multi-million dollar hotel project, Rowley said, it had told Government they intended to pay for the preliminary work.
“We are talking to the local IDB office to ensure that the IDB pay those monies. So we took steps to present Tobago as a potential site and we have already had, based on the work we have done so far... we have already had a presentation Wednesday (last) by Sandals to the Cabinet.
“We move on now with respect to negotiation for 750 rooms in Tobago to make it a tourism resort.”
The news comes days after it was disclosed Rowley will now head a special committee charged with Tobago’s tourism sector. The committee was set up in May and will see the PM having oversight of ministers and stakeholders in relation to tourism.
Members of the committee include Tourism Minister Shamfa Cudjoe, Finance Minister Colm Imbert, Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister Ayanna Webster-Roy, as well as Tobago House of Assembly Chief Secretary Orville London and THA Chief Administrator Raye Sandy. Sandals was founded by Jamaican business tycoon Gordon”Butch” Stewart.
As soon as negotiations have concluded, Rowley said they would form a partnership between Sandals and the State. Working closely with the Government on this deal was the THA, Rowley said. He said Tobago would be known as a “world class... worldwide tourist destination in the Caribbean. We will ensure that when we embark on this project, that there is funding in place and this thing called corruption we want to recede.”
Once the deal had been sealed, Rowley said construction would generate jobs and open opportunities that could change the face of the island, which had a lot of potential.
“We will think big and move fast. We are offering Tobago an opportunity to take part in the Caribbean tourism plan in a meaningful way,” he added.
Rowley has already instructed WASA to upgrade its supply in Tobago with the establishment and operation of desalination plant, while T&TEC would have to upgrade its electricity supply. The PM said since last year he had also promised to open up the northeastern region by building a road from Valencia to Toco.
“At the end of that road we will have a ferry port that will go to Tobago,” he said. Instead of travelling via plane to Tobago, Rowley said a 20-minute hassle free drive would get you from Trinidad to Tobago and vice-versa. Funding for the port and ferry, Rowley stated, would be provided by the IDB.
Also on the drawing board was construction of two highways: Sangre Grande to Manzanilla and Manzanilla to Wallerfield. By the end of June, Rowley said consultants would come up with designs for both highways.