Ridiculous statement of the week goes to Tourism Minister Dr. Brown for this this gem in responding to a hotel developer's warning that the PLP Government's cavalier behaviour to tourism development is scaring away potential investors:
"If this fellow is not interested there are plenty of others lining up to come here."
Riiigghhhttt.
For years we've been told that all these dormant sites are about to take off, predictably nothing has come of it. And now we have the Government abusing major hotel developers, including marquee groups like Four Seasons.
The PLP's behaviour around tourism development is not just ineffective, it is surely turning off future investors as was warned in today's Gazette. But the Minister doesn't want to hear it.
I can cite, off the top of my head, three high profile and important developments whose developers were suddenly and without explanation kicked to the curb.
There's Morgan's Point, a project that was moving along under the UBP before the 1998 election and was suddenly stopped by the PLP when they took office. What's happening there now? Nothing. They're parking mobile homes on the perimeter.
Then there's the South Shore development that Bermudian Rammy Smith was far down the road on, to the tune of several million dollars, before he was suddenly advised that the site had been sold to another developer, and that Cabinet was privy to this.
And now we've got the 20 year dormant Club Med site which had a developer identified, but to be suddenly and without explanation turfed off the project. The Minister won't say why...not even to the investors he sent packing. He won't say who the new developer is.
That is unacceptable. There has been no significant development* since the PLP took office in 1998, and with the way they're acting the prospects are becoming more remote every day.
This behaviour won't just damage tourism development. It will cast doubt over the whole island as a business friendly and attractive jurisdiction for investment. But the impact on tourism development will be most severe. Hotels require a huge capital investment while reinsurance does not. Investors require stability, not unpredictability.
Dr. Brown is not unintelligent. It's his ethics that we should worry about. His role in deposing Jennifer Smith, the as yet unresolved pay to play scandal and his sale of a property to the BHC for example are testament to his lack of ethics.
What is he not telling us? We're entitled to know.
* CORRECTION: The original post has been corrected. The statement "There has been no development since the PLP took office in 1998..." was incorrect and has been amended to "There has been no significant development since the PLP took office in 1998...."
Posted by Christian S. Dunleavy