Tourist tirade

After an absence of five years, we found Barbados to be, for the most part, as agreeable as ever:  the sun warm, the beer cold, and of course de rum "fine any time of year".  However, we also noticed that a trend we have been observing for quite some time is becoming yet more pronounced.  Barbados is turning itself into a rich man's playground, and it's a model that may bring problems for the island in the longer term.

The latest manifestation of this trend is the development, on the always upscale West Coast, of a "lifestyle mall", Limegrove, to cater for the needs of the wealthy.  It's unlikely that the locals have much interest in the Louis Vuitton, Cartier and Bulgari extravagances that have appeared in their midst, and there must be some doubt about whether the new development will attract much business from the target audience -- how likely is it that the super-rich don't see any need to own a Louis Vuitton handbag until they happen to spy one in Barbados?

However, as the new place to be seen, Limegrove, and the surrounding district of Holetown, is pulling business of other kinds away from the rest of the island.  That area is now the place to go for an evening out, and the effect is being felt in the island's long-time party hotspot, the "Gap" on the South Coast, where a number of well-established watering holes are now boarded up, and the evening footfall seems noticeably lower than in the past.

This is having the effect of pushing down property values on the South Coast, which is prompting developers to move in and erect the kind of much fancier tourist accommodations previously confined to the west.  We stayed in one of these new hotels, and very nice it was too, but as all these developments are being financed and sold on a condominium basis, there is an obvious risk that the range of properties available for the less affluent short-stay tourist will shrink.

Indeed, this is already happening.  One property we have used in the past has now been boarded up for three years.  Just last year, one mini-chain of three all-inclusive, mid-range properties threatened to close, with the loss of 500 jobs.  One of the three was kept open with government help, but the others are closed and up for sale, with the obvious likelihood that they will be picked up by condo developers and turned into something more upscale.

The official data show that Barbados tourist numbers fell during 2012, having only just begun to recover from the impact of the financial crisis.  It's very unlikely that a loss in tourist numbers can be successfully offset by improving facilities for the world's rich -- there just aren't enough of them out there, and they tend to be awfully fickle.  To keep its people gainfully employed in this key sector, Barbados needs to continue to find ways to attract visitors across a wide range of incomes and countries.

.....though perhaps not these guys.  A couple of days before we left,  our hotel was invaded by a group of fifteen men, who proceeded to drink from morning until night, commandeer the swimming pool, festoon their balconies with sports banners and generally make themselves a nuisance.  A taxi driver told me that he took some of them for an island tour, which turned out to be a jaunt to a bar on the other side of the island, with a stop at a rum shop on the way back to the hotel.  I probably don't even need to tell you at this point that they were from the UK, doing their part to reinforce the sad truth that homo erectus britannicus, when travelling in packs, is the most feared and loathed creature in world tourism.

Still, it was a great week, so I should end on a bright note.  We took the opportunity to visit a local church for which an old friend, many years ago, had designed the Stations of the Cross.  The parish is now in the hands of a group of very jolly Polish priests, and it was uplifting to take part in their Sunday Mass.  There's a line in one of Leonard Cohen's less well-known songs, "Jazz Police", that runs like this:

"Jesus taken serious by many
Jesus taken joyous by a few".

This congregation were very definitely part of the joyous few.  Long may that continue, both for them and for their island.