Afra Raymond was interviewed on the Tobago Sandals MoU on TTT on the morning programme NOW on Tuesday 11th December 2018. Please read his interpretation of the MoU in his previous post. Video courtesy TTT.
Programme Date: 11 December 2018
Programme Length: 06:53
AfraRaymond.net 
You are on point. T&T government are entering waters where they are not familiar. This is a quote from a letter I sent to Trinidad Express:
“It has been reported that Sandals Resorts International “is exploring options to accelerate the company’s long-term growth and development plans,” including selling the company to a new owner. Reuters has reported that the Caribbean resort operator has hired investment bank Deutsche Bank AG to “explore several options, including a sale of a majority stake in the company.” In addition, hospitality heavyweights Sandals Resorts International and Marriott International will soon team up to bring boutique lifestyle brand AC Hotels by Marriott to the Caribbean. Sandals has announced that the partnership will begin with the 220-room AC Kingston, slated to open winter 2019. Construction on the $50 million project is underway.
In fact, far from looking for a buyer, it has been searching for favourable financing on Wall Street to expand its brand name product. According to Chief Executive Officer Adam Stewart, Sandals is now looking to build as much as a dozen new hotels, the biggest expansion in its history. “We’re open to taking on more debt to build more than one hotel at a time. We want to build three or four hotels a year,” Stewart told Bloomberg. “We are trying to look for bigger capital to grow. We know exactly what to do and how to do it. But up until now we’ve been restricted by the balance sheet of regional banks.”
T&T is a pilot project, with no financing from Sandals. If it does not work, they just remove their name (void management contract for poor occupancy/ maintenance/ utility supply etc.). There is a huge liability due to lack of airlift. All Sandals properties are in locations that have direct air connections to US/ Euro cities. How are we getting clients to Tobago the same day if they are coming to Trinidad?
On another issue, walk me through getting info via the Freedom of Information Act. I am trying to get the Audit Report on Pan Trinbago.
Regards
I look forward to reading your report back, Afra, on the upcoming meeting at the Public Library in Scarborough.
Well Phyllis, we are going to record the mtg and post that
If the three hotels, Hilton, Hyatt and Magdalena have not been audited…Pan-Trinbago…yeah right.