Government has been given kudos for its Barbados Employment and Sustainable Transformation (BEST) programme, which a businessman says has saved many a hotel from closure.
Dominic De Freitas, son of chairman of The Ocean Hotel Group, Peter De Freitas, said Tuesday that the programme, introduced in response to the social and economic impact of COVID-19 and which focuses on reengagement of workers in the tourism sector, had helped the hotel group to chart the way forward to the opening of the new O2 Hotel and Spa.
“The BEST programme saved many of the hotels, including our own, and whose business models were certainly going to fail because the coronavirus left such a dent in travel and tourism. It was a genius idea and it kept employees employed while maintaining a base level of commerce in the industry,” De Freitas said.
Speaking at the official opening of the group’s latest property, the multimillion-dollar O2 Beach Spa and Club at St Lawrence Gap, De Freitas said the BEST programme had also enabled his company to go ahead with the $31 million project – which adds 42 hotel rooms to the island’s stock – in an uncertain environment. In turn, the developers, he recognised, had demonstrated confidence in the future of Barbados’s tourism industry. (GC)
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