Barbados’ small hotels are considering operating under a co-operative structure.
Chairman of the Intimate Hotels of Barbados (IHB), Mahmood Patel, said this was necessary to meet the challenges the sector was currently experiencing, with “crisis after crisis” coming both at the macro and micro level.
Delivering his report at the IHB’s annual general meeting this morning, Patel asserted structural changes were needed for the organisation and he advised the group would have to do “massive soul-searching and  reinvention” if it hoped to survive.
He cited challenges such as the ability to keep businesses intact while containing operating costs, and suggested there was a need to generate new tourism markets, new guests and new types of tourism.
“We need to start to collaborate at another level than we are now used to. We should see the IHB as a 1 000-room hotel with 44 locations and shareholders,” Mahmood told the meeting which also heard about the value of going the co-operative route in a presentation by registrar of co-operatives Brent Gittens. (GC)
