President of the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association (BHTA), Colin Jordan, says the industry is facing challenges of high costs and keen competition and will have to seek new ideas to halt the decline.
Speaking in the aftermath of the announced impending closure of Almond Beach Village and the recent closure of NewEdgewater Hotel, Jordan told the DAILY NATION no new large hotels were being built and much of the local product was somewhat “tired”.
“I’m pretty sure that, based on my accounting background, there are quite a number of tourism businesses facing very, very tough times. The profitability, the ability to keep hotel plants in good shape just isn’t there,” he stated.
“There has been maintenance mainly but no general refurbishment of many local hotels; while almost all the other warm-weather competing islands in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean offer better prices and in some cases better quality hotels,” he added.
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