Debt crisis

NOTED HOTELIER and businessman Bernie Weatherhead says Barbados’ hotel industry is heavily in debt, and needs corrective action now to save it.
He charged yesterday that at least 60 per cent of hotels were in serious financial trouble and continually rescheduling bank payments.
Additionally, he said, he had been told that as much as 80 per cent of the commercial banks’ bad debt related to the hotel industry.
“That tells you a million stories right there,” said Weatherhead, chairman of the SUN Group, which includes hotels, tour and vehicle rental companies and a regional insurance business.
Weatherhead said tourism was supposed to be Barbados’ primary industry  and the one that was going to save the country, but if an effort was not made to fix it now then the country could look forward to even worse times.