by S Brian Samuel
Picture the scene: It’s cruise ship day in Grenada, and two giant ships are docked at the Cruise Port, a third at the Cargo Port, and a fourth is anchored offshore.
Including off-duty crew members, up to 20,000 sun- and fun-seeking visitors descend on the island, temporarily increasing its population by one-fifth. Onshore it’s a soup: thousands of tourists are strolling through town, looking for the best duty-free bargains, or just looking. Every shop, restaurant and bar is packed, the streets are so crowded you can barely move. Offshore, catamarans and speedboats are whizzing up and down, water taxis are ferrying tanned tourists to and from Grand Anse Beach, brimming sand-to-sea with deckchairs. Vendors are happy; shopkeepers are happy; restaurants are happy; taxi drivers are happy. And tourists are happy – a win-win, right? Wrong.
You know who aren’t happy? Grenada’s tourists. By whom I mean Grenada’s real tourists: the ones who spend real money. My brother and sister-in-law, Gerry and Pat, are Grenada’s archetypal tourist: they live in Wimbledon and should get gold medals, for the number of times they’ve visited Grenada. They love Grenada’s laid-back tranquility, the friendliness of its people, and most of all the absence of crowds. Except on cruise ship days; they abhor cruise ship days, when they flee from the overcrowded beach and hole up in their room. The old people (i.e. us!) have a term for this: cutting off your nose, to spite your face.
We are pissing off real tourists, those who spend in excess of US$1,000 per visit, to please masses of day-trippers who, according to the cruise ship industry’s own survey, spend a paltry US$45 per visit. Why? Because of numbers, and our politicians’ addiction to big ones. Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Ed Bartlett loves to boast how Jamaica received 1.5 million cruise ship visitors in 2019; but he wasn’t pleased, when I asked him at a conference: Yes Minister, but how much do they spend? Ask the same question to any vendor at the Falmouth Cruise Terminal – you won’t be able to print the answer.
But this is what Caribbean tourism has become: quantity over quality; numbers over impact; size over sustainability. We, and I mean all of us: governments, investors, financiers and so-called experts like me; have been so caught up on numbers – numbers of hotel rooms, numbers of tourists, numbers of flights – that we have totally failed to see the bigger picture: that endless growth, in a finite and usually small island, is (a) short-sighted; (b) misguided; and (c) simply impossible.
Even after the lessons of the Covid pandemic should be clear for all to see, Grenada is continuing with this folly. The government is simultaneously pursuing two multi-billion dollar, Chinese-backed tourism projects: one at Levera, a pristine beach to the north of the island, home to the highly endangered Leatherback Turtle; and another at Mount Hartman, a pristine National Park and home to the highly endangered Grenada Dove. There are only two words that can describe these projects, with thanks to HRH Prince Charles: monstrous carbuncles.
As a Grenadian, it makes me proud when people tell me how beautiful my island is. And not just physical beauty, Grenada has a rich historical heritage, reflected in its iconic Georgian architecture, along with more recent touches that are inherently Grenadian. Not so these carbuncles: Chinese designed mega-hotels which have absolutely nothing in common with their host environment. A host environment that is rapidly being attacked by these same projects. At the beautiful Levera Beach, a swathe of land has been clear cut, and ugly living quarters constructed, for the expected influx of Chinese workers. Further down the coast a beautiful wetlands habitat, La Sagesse (Wisdom), has been utterly destroyed, clear-cut by another developer. And at Mount Hartman, over several years several mega-hotel developments have all stalled, leaving nothing behind but scars in the earth. Repeat: this is a National Park. These projects are the centrepieces of the government’s “tourism-led recovery” strategy.
Tourism-led recovery? In my opinion, tourism will be the last sector of the economy to fully recover – if ever. And it certainly won’t recover through the kinds of mass-market, bargain-basement tourism that the government is currently promoting. The average visitor to Grenada is: (a) older; (b) more affluent; and (c) more discerning than the normal tourist; they come to Grenada, precisely because it’s not a mass-market destination, and doesn’t have the kinds of abominations pictured above.
Haven’t we learned anything at all? Are we still trotting out these same old, failed strategies? That bigger equals better? Every person on the planet is gun-shy about getting on a plane, a shyness that will last for years – particularly among Grenada’s tourist demographic: middle-aged and above. In the post-Covid world (whenever that may be), air travel will become: (a) less competitive; (b) longer queues; and (c) more expensive. It’s not pleasant, spending an eight-hour overnight flight wearing a mask, especially when Southern Europe is just a short hop away (and Spanish beaches are just as nice as ours, believe me).
In addition to being unpleasant, travel will also become more expensive. With the certain failure of many of the world’s airlines, those left standing will be more able to dictate prices, as they used to in the bad old days before liberalization. In aviation, social distancing is expensive: who do you think will pay for that empty seat next to you? You will. Another factor is travel insurance: middle-aged tourists will think long and hard before travelling anywhere without cover, and in the post-Covid world, premiums will become a lot more expensive.
And in the midst of this global pandemonium, this is when we decide to promote mass-market tourism? Do the math: it doesn’t compute.
Not only doesn’t it compute, it’s not even doable. Grenada is a tiny island, 23 miles from stem to stern, there’s no capacity to absorb a billion-dollar project, let alone two. Yet our Prime Minister assures us: “The initial stages of work on the $300 million hotel project by Range Developments in St David and the over $1 billion Grenada National Resort Project in St Patrick are now underway.” Do these “initial stages of work” include anything more than destroying the previously pristine environment? In return for destroying our natural habitats, how many Grenadians have been employed on these billion-dollar projects? More to the point: are these the type of tourism development that Grenada needs?
All my life I’ve worked in finance, I’m the archetypal numbers nerd. I would love to see the feasibility studies for these projects! How many hotel rooms would a billion dollars build? Two billion? Three? How many new tourists would need to visit Grenada, paying what rate, to make a billion-dollar hotel profitable? How many Grenadians would it employ? We may not know the answer to the first two questions, but we certainly know the third: not many. Chinese businesses abroad have a proven record of hiring predominantly Chinese workers. The only locals hired on previous Chinese-funded projects in Grenada have been a handful of janitors and security guards. Where will we find the thousands of trained hotel staff to work in these Chinese mega-hotels? Don’t be silly: China.
In Grenada, you can’t get further from the airport than Levera Beach: via a long, potholed, narrow and very winding road. Are we going to build a new high-speed highway, to whisk these thousands of new visitors to the previously pristine beaches of Northern Grenada? Water, electricity, sewerage and solid waste disposal: Grenada can’t even provide sufficient infrastructure for its own citizens, how will we provide for these billion-dollar projects?
What is particularly depressing about these mega-projects, is the total lack of any effective environmental oversight. My good friend the irrepressible Dr Hazel DaBreo is leading the charge to get some answers on the La Sagesse debacle, where the developers ignored their own Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and clear-cut hundreds of acres of mangroves, in one of Grenada’s most diverse natural habitats. The Chinese projects do not even have this minimal level of environmental screening – they just move in with the bulldozers.
Covid-19 has been a harsh lesson in reality: that our over-reliance on a fickle industry like tourism is a double-edged sword. And to use the vernacular: we just get a hard lash, with the backside of the machete! But do we learn? Evidently not, because in response to the pandemic that has exposed the fragility of tourism, what do we do? Rely on tourism even more! Isn’t it clear to any rational person, that we need a change of direction?
Naturally, tourism must play a central role in the regeneration of the Grenadian economy, but the crucial question is: What kind of tourism? You can’t fit square pegs into round holes; a country’s tourism strategy has to gel with its natural and human attributes. There are 2 distinct types of destination: mass-market tourism; and niche tourism; and Grenada sits squarely in the niche category. Our biggest hotel only has about 250 rooms, tiny by mass-market standards. During a recession, it is often the smaller, more upmarket hotels that are better able to weather the storm; as their clientele tends to be more well-heeled than the mass-market segment.
My contention is simple: These are the wrong hotels, for the wrong market, at the wrong time, on the wrong island. Apart from destroying the environment, bad design, and wrong locations; what else do these mega-projects all have in common? Their financing. None of them is backed by the traditional deep-pocketed “foreign investor”: a single entity or consortium that put their money where their mouth is and invests millions to make their dreams a reality. All these projects are predicated on the sale of one thing: Grenadian passports.
But that’s another story – altogether!
Watch out for Part 2 – Island for Sale: Grenada
Excellent Article. Grenada is done. Why all these hotels? Grenadian passport. Big business. Chinese taking over the Caribbean. Black people continued to struggle all the lives due to the own government because they have no common sense. The Grenada government loves the investors. They get so much privilege even the Chinese. China wants as much countries in their hands. They are ruining the island beauty with a bunch ugly hotels, destroying our environment. And Grenada hotels are to dam expensive anyways. I heard people who never been to Grenada say it’s too expensive. And when it gets crowded a lot people dont like that.
An Island is in trouble when the “ass kissing ” tourism industry is it’s No.1 industry.
There is no record of any Chinese-built or Chinese-backed resort or major project benefiting anyone but the Chinese. This isn’t another case of third-party work-around like Russia via Cuba. This is a direct attempt to buy the compliance of Grenadians while creating a virtual invasion of Grenadian business. I have no problem with tourists coming from that country. But this is an attempt to infiltrate the Caribbean nations from without. Be it known that this is like a vampire: once you allow them into your home you cannot refuse them afterwards…..be warned.
I agree tourism is Grenada’s main source of income, but as we can see now, some Opportunistic Nation can make the tourist dependent nation very poor. (1) By their lack of transparency in their governing style which as we can see now can drastically affect a small nations like Grenada. The CCP (Chinese Gov.) has no interest in building another nation. In their quest for dominance in the world they are installing posts /bases in all forms all around the world. The Covid 19 release was ment to bring tourist dependent nations to their knees. This creates an opportunity for negotiations. (2) They always control your resources. If your resource is tourism then they do tourism. If your resource is tourism and bauxite then they do that (done in Jamaica) (3) If you make your money to survive on “A” why would you give control of A to someone. (4) When China takes over an industry it is pushed out the local vendors. As they would rent the hotel rooms for dirt cheap (because the Chinese Gov. covers their loss as long as they are killing the locals businesses) Why, they would pay Chinese workers much less than a Grenadian need to survive. What will happen to all the locals running hotels. They will go out of business. Their families will become poor and the kids will become hopeless as the mom and the pop business die. They will have to leave the island for greener pastures like the US. The Chinese will own Grenada as the able youth search for other forms of work. It is time that the Governments of the Caribbean start studying the negative effects of the Chineese Contracts they are signing. SOLUTION: (1) Small Nations should first put value on all of their unique habitats and never put them in outside nations control. (2) Always stay in control of industries which gives work to your Citizens. (3) Never negotiate away your money making resources like unique habitats (Leather Back Beach).(Grenada Dove Location). (3) A nation wanting to help you should provide resources to your Citizens. ( Give grenadian business efficient access to wholesalers in china instead of asking Grenada to create a Chinatown for chinese to sell their goods. (this happened in Trinadad) and (Ghana’s local shops cannot compete with chineese shops). We need access. We don’t need you to come here and make our nation and people poor. Taking our money out of circulation. ( Chineese sales go back to China where their families are / there goes our money . This money was previously circulated among our people. Now it went in a black hole in china never to be seen again. Think about where the money from tourism will go. It will not be in Grenada anymore. The workers and owners will send it to China. All economies that negotiate with China will lose in the long run. Because they are usually convinced by the chineese with forcast charts and fancy graphs that they will be able to pay it back. The reason the IMF is not giving you a loan is because you have not spend the time assessing and evaluating your resources to present to them a plan of monitization of these resources. ( for instance has Grenada monetize the viewing of Letherbacks in habitat for tourism? Has Grenada monetize the viewing of Grenada Doves in Habitat for tourism. Etc Etc Etc. Instead we seems we take these things for granted while tourist will most likely pay to experience this uniqueness.) When its lost to the chineese ( leatherback turtles are favorite chineese dish an so will be the Grenadian Dove). Please study what is happening around the world. Locals always cry out when the chineese come in. It’s not a joke.:). Learn from what locals from other nations are saying before Grenada is overcome. STAY PRISTINE GRENADA it will pay off in the long run as other nations lose their marbles. Ask for help only to create a new industry an industry you are not good at. DONT GIVE AWAY SOMETHING THATS ALREADY MAKING MONEY. That’s called giving away your resources.
A job well done Mr. Samuel:
You must understand that the rise of the tourist industry began with the end of colonist rule. The warm sunshine and the blue Antillean waters were prized by the Europeans. There was the possibility of making money. Sad to say, the influx of tourism brought a switch in conservative morals– ushering just plain “slackness.” The Caribbean became a “fun spot” were whites frequent to behave badly. Our pseudo-believe that tourists spend money is bringing us down. But we are entering into a new transition– where the Chinese are slowly becoming our biggest monopoly. They’ve taken over Zambia and will eventually take us over if we are not cautious. Afro-Jamaicans have have had three clashes with the Chinese . The tension surfaced primarily because they do not know how to integrate into societies. They’ve always kept to themselves. As you mentioned in your article, they only employ their own– Using Grenadians as “security guards,” etc. But this is the fault of our governments. Don’t get me wrong, members of the esoteric crowd are getting rich from these deals but the island’s majority will still suffer. It was the government policy to negotiate a better contract so that Grenadians could work beside them and learn some skills. It is also the government’s duty to bring in diversity training sessions so that the blacks on the island are not abused and called “monkey” people as they called the Africans. We could use the African story and make our deals better. When we use them to build up these gargantuan structures that do not suit our environment, we will suffer the death of our land. When we can’t repay their loans, they will take us over and we will be pushed into the era of Chinese domination. They are an ancient culture who are known to build empires that last thousands of years. There invasion is slow, but dexterously planned — but we are to be blamed for not being vigilant. Now Mr. Samuel, you and i do not see eye to eye sometimes, but voicing this truth was a MUST!!!
Sorry to disagree, but Grenada needs jobs, income for the country, and responsible tourist developments. The report is imho a hatchet job by environmentalist activists going their preferred thing, while sustaining their own careers and incomes. The damage is real, but so is local lack pf opportunity and poverty, but we have plenty of pristine beaches, mangrove and countryside, and we are in no way overdeveloped. You cant say this is the thin end of the wedge, the beginning of the end or will lead to destruction, its not the nature of this beast.
So before the hotel what was this land doing? Feeding a few goats, breeding a lot of mosquitos and providing a nice view for the expensive villas on the hillside, and as a pond growing mangrove, same as many other bays round the island. Interestingly the report can say nothing unique agout the removal, its not, its a common setup.
Look at the 6 senses group, and their many hotels in fragile asian areas. Do you see complaints of raping and pollaging the countryside? Of course not, its not in their interest to do a bad job, their clients pay big money partially to know they are dealing with a responsible company.
Yes, some habitat wil be lost, but its not significant, and especially at this time we must take a balanced view.
I was told the Grenadian government has borrowed a lot of money from the CCP. This is happening throughout the Caribbean. It only stops when Grenadians have voice and make a change at the polls. Not a time to be complacent.
Thank you for this very well written article. As an expat Grenadian this makes me weep. I hope that the people of Grenada will work together to let your Government know that this is not right before it is too late. So very sad!
The destruction of our pristine coastline is also a spiritual tragedy. These days I rush to Levera as often as I can to roam the pristine landscape. I go there to be psychically cleansed. I go there standing on top of the Welcome Stone to absorb the grandeur, basking in the blessings that has made this possible. Because soon so soon it will not be my Grenada anymore.
Sometimes I hold to the coast, sometimes to the trails under the trees walking all the way down to River Sally bay. I like the experience of being humbled before nature, of feeling that I am walking through eternal processes, that I am sharing life with so many natural habitat companions. If you take away this soothing environment my soul would wither and I would die a spiritual death. At this moment it seems there is no politician in Grenada who understands this kind of spiritual sustenance.
Similar stories around the region…we need to come together to battle this and to bolster meaningful value-based tourism for the region…Saint Lucia has similar cruise numbers and resulting issues, similar “investor” carbuncle-debacles… Same story up and down the island chain…let’s rally to figure out how to stop this. The CTO is outdated and outmoded and doesn’t represent the needs of the region it seems…so, how do we team up?