Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Rooms to let
Hotels are a problem in Bermuda. They are expensive and 99% of them need some serious upgrading. Only in April the first new hotel opened on the island for 35 years near me at Newstead. It also includes some fractional ownership apartments too, which is one of the very few allowances non-Bermudians have in purchasing property on the island. They cost between $129,000 to $360,000 for 8 weeks of yearly ownership.
It was just a start. After 35 years of the island's tourist trade relying on it's pink sands and hoary looking hotels to attract tourists, the government realised that the visitors who come in on the cruise-liners on average spend only a few dollars per head before getting back on board for their entertainment.
The government promised assistance and funding in encouraging foreign and Bermudian investment in both new developements and some major improvements to the existing hotels, and in particular the Grand Dame of them all the Hamilton Princess. Michael Douglas' family owned Ariel Sands also has plans of redevelopment.
A number of new hotel projects have been in the works, but many don't make it beyond the planning stage and the current economic climate I am sure is giving hoteliers a few wobbles. However a Ritz Carlton does look likely in Hamilton on the corner of Church Street and Par-La-Ville and later this year at the exclusive hamlet of Tuckers Point will be the Georgian looking Tuckers Point Hotel, affiliated with the Preferred Hotel Group, but owned by a Bermudian company. Then, noticeably not until 2011, the environmentally friendly Southampton Beach Resort being proposed by Scout Real Estate Capital on a 32-acre oceanfront site in Southampton will open to the tune of $300m. Dubai's Jumeirah Resorts are also rumoured to be interested in opening here.
And yesterday, the old Club Med hotel in St George, which has been shuttered for 18 years was finally demolished using controlled explosions, and the talk of the town as the 11 storeys came crashing down watched by hundreds of people on land and on sea (see photo). This will be the site of a new Park Hyatt, set to also open in 2011. ¶ 17:04
It was just a start. After 35 years of the island's tourist trade relying on it's pink sands and hoary looking hotels to attract tourists, the government realised that the visitors who come in on the cruise-liners on average spend only a few dollars per head before getting back on board for their entertainment.
The government promised assistance and funding in encouraging foreign and Bermudian investment in both new developements and some major improvements to the existing hotels, and in particular the Grand Dame of them all the Hamilton Princess. Michael Douglas' family owned Ariel Sands also has plans of redevelopment.
A number of new hotel projects have been in the works, but many don't make it beyond the planning stage and the current economic climate I am sure is giving hoteliers a few wobbles. However a Ritz Carlton does look likely in Hamilton on the corner of Church Street and Par-La-Ville and later this year at the exclusive hamlet of Tuckers Point will be the Georgian looking Tuckers Point Hotel, affiliated with the Preferred Hotel Group, but owned by a Bermudian company. Then, noticeably not until 2011, the environmentally friendly Southampton Beach Resort being proposed by Scout Real Estate Capital on a 32-acre oceanfront site in Southampton will open to the tune of $300m. Dubai's Jumeirah Resorts are also rumoured to be interested in opening here.
And yesterday, the old Club Med hotel in St George, which has been shuttered for 18 years was finally demolished using controlled explosions, and the talk of the town as the 11 storeys came crashing down watched by hundreds of people on land and on sea (see photo). This will be the site of a new Park Hyatt, set to also open in 2011. ¶ 17:04
