Tag: Tobago tourism

VIDEO: Resort Development in Tobago: A Stakeholder Perspective

tobago resortsAfra Raymond talks on:

  1. the role and importance of stakeholder participation / buy-in / collaboration / information sharing,
  2. issues of transparency & accountability specifically the underlying commercial arrangements, and
  3. strategies for the way forward,

during this panel discussion: ‘Resort Development in Tobago: Power, Politics & People’ organized by Department of Management Studies of the University of the West Indies.

Programme Date: Wednesday 22nd May, 2019
Programme Length: 00:16:43

Property Matters – Notes on Resort Development

tobago resortsAt 5:00 pm on Wednesday 22nd May 2019, the ‘Resort Development in Tobago: Power, Politics and People’ seminar was held at Tobago Hospitality & Tourism Institute Campus, Blenheim, Mt. St. George, Tobago. The speakers were –

  • Dr Acolla Cameron (Chair) – Head of the Dept of Management Studies, UWI,
  • Mr Louis Lewis – CEO of the Tobago Tourism Agency,
  • Mrs Diane Hadad – Chair, Tobago Division of the T&T Chamber of Commerce,
  • Dr Leslie-Ann Jordan-Miller – Senior Lecturer, UWI,
  • and myself.

Today’s seminar emerged from a December 2018 invitation extended to me by UWI colleagues to participate in a seminar on the proposals for Tobago Sandals. The announced withdrawal of Sandals from that project lead to a widened scope for this seminar and I am pleased to work with those UWI colleagues on this important issue.

This article outlines the case I propose advancing as my notes on resort development.  Continue reading “Property Matters – Notes on Resort Development” →

Property Matters – Tobago Sandals MoU-MoU

moumou

—from Lise Winer’s ‘Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad & Tobago’ (p. 619)

‘The Truth eats Lies’

—from Marlon James’ latest epic ‘Black Leopard, Red Wolf’

The previous article stated that over $5.0 Billion of Public Money was spent in the first 6 months of 2009 during the CL Financial bailout, under that MoU. Yes, that is the same type of document which we were so loudly being told is not binding and can be completely renegotiated, in relation to Tobago Sandals.

The publication of the Tobago Sandals MoU at the end of November 2018, forced by my litigation, set those misleaders to try diverting concerns by claiming it was all open for discussion. Of course it is possible to renegotiate any contract, or MoU for that matter, but that is trite and explains nothing. Probably intentionally so, really.

The limits of renegotiation are rooted in the bargaining strength of the parties. Which means that the party with stronger leverage can in fact call for renegotiation and likely obtain improved terms. The weaker party will almost inevitably agree to renegotiation, in the course of which serious concessions will be obtained by the stronger party.

The recent episodes of Sandals shutdown/withdrawals in both Antigua and Barbuda and the Turks and Caicos Islands are crucial in understanding this ‘Carefully Crafted Confusion’. In both those cases, Sandals spent the capital to build the resort, but yet were still able to shutdown to seek further concessions. In the Tobago case, Sandals was investing no capital. Even in what I am now calling the Lok Jack Gambit (which I will get to in the next part) no Sandals capital was at risk. The point being that if Sandals was intended to have no capital at risk in Tobago, T&T would have been in a far weaker negotiating position than any of the other Caribbean countries. That is the precipice we were facing, the deep peril which our misleaders are trying to normalise. Continue reading “Property Matters – Tobago Sandals MoU-MoU” →