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Monday 8 october 2018

Hotel Hustle

Column by: Shanella Pantophlet

Weathering the storm

Recently one of the hottest topics of discussion on the Island has been the
amount of construction going on, especially during a time when there is
supposed to be a moratorium on hotel rooms.

The debate really heated up with the announcement of a new hotel com-
ing to the Island, despite this ban on hotel rooms, the justification of the
current government being that the contracts for this property were signed
before the moratorium that they championed was ratified into law.

Many of the established hotels/resorts on the Island aren’t really too thrilled
with the news of even more competition in an already highly competitive
field. Beyond that there is growing frustration because instead of focusing
on the quality of the existing properties and how much guests staying at
those properties contribute to the community as a whole, the government
seems to be focused more on quantity. The general feeling is that the cur-
rent trend will not be sustainable in the long term.

One of the best indicators of this being the erosion and damage to our beaches over the last few years. After hurricane Matthew, the previous
government commissioned a study of all the beaches affected in the hotel area, both high and low rise as each section has their own difficul-
ties. The high rise area suffers from a host of issues which include water pollution due to the boats, jetskis and other recreational water sports
vehicles and even the sunblock used. The low rise area suffers mostly from beach erosion and the study that was commissioned was supposed
to come out with a full scale plan of attack to rescue Aruba’s #1 commodity.

Two years later, the study and its findings are complete, but still no plan of action has been put into place and trying to get anyone in the
government to even talk about it, is like pulling teeth. Meanwhile more condos, boutique hotels and even upscale hotels are being built or are
in the planning stages. The established hotels then feel like the stepchild competing for attention in an industry that was built on their backs.

The debate on what needs to be the main focus right now kicked up again after tropical storm Kirk swept by last weekend with its heavy storm
surges, pushing water and sand around, causing more erosion to the beaches on the low rise and churning up the filth at the beaches near the
high rises. My mother commented on the facts guests were complaining about the stench of the beach in front of the hotel she works at, while
at our resort we had to flag and close off areas that would pose a danger to swimmers due to rocks and heavy waves. Plenty of resorts feel that
if the government is going to be taxing them for structures on the beach, then we should be able to see our tax money at work in restoration
and clean up efforts on the government end to keep our beaches looking beatiful.
A thought should also be spared for long term sustainability vs short term revenue generation.q

Aruban born and bred Shanella Pantophlet is passionate about tour-
ism. That is the world she studied and works in, so we might as well call
her a specialist. Luckily for Aruba Today Shanella also loves to write.
And together with the fact that the majority of our readers are tourists,
we found ourselves a perfect combination for a column: Hotel Hustle.