Tracy: Tobago 'autonomy' bills must not meet same fate as Sandals

PNM Tobago Council political leader Tracy Davidson-Celestine has warned that the Tobago "autonomy" bills must not meet the same fate as the failed Sandals project, several years ago.

The proposed billion-dollar Sandals project, involving the construction of a luxury resort at Buccoo, was expected to reinvigorate the island’s tourism sector and generate employment for hundreds of Tobagonians.

But in January 2019, owing to negative publicity, Sandals Resorts International CEO Gebhard Rainer announced the company had pulled out.

The resort chain’s founder Gordon “Butch” Stewart had complained at a news conference in October 2018 that “TT was one of the most political countries” in which he had ever had to operate.

On another occasion, Stewart said TT’s political system had the potential to drive away investors, as the two major parties – the PNM and UNC – were always fighting.

In a television interview on Friday, Davidson-Celestine described the Tobago Self-Government Bill and the Tobago Island Administration Bill as "progressive" and urged citizens to support the legislation.

“I do not want this situation to be another Sandals. We saw what happened with Sandals,” Davidson-Celestine said. “I was in tourism and everybody articulated we need more for Tobago in terms of tourism. We need the branded hotels. We need the seats in business class and first class to be filled.

“But when the thing that is to cause the flights to come and the seats to be filled and a higher end of persons to come to the destination, some destructive persons decided that in their communication they would talk about the disadvantages for Sandals.”

Davidson-Celestine said today, the resort chain is making its name in several Caribbean countries “and we are just here standing on with our hands tied behind our back.”

The Tobago bills are scheduled to be debated in Parliament on Monday and Tuesday. They require a three-fifths majority for passage.