Tweet
..... and makes my point at the end.
Seaga points to hotel trouble
Says small properties facing extinction due to lower rates offered by Spanish chains
Monday, May 25, 2009
NEGRIL, Westmoreland - Former prime minister Edward Seaga says small hotels are faced with extinction if swift action is not taken by the authorities to secure their market in the face of overpowering competition from Spanish hotel chains which can afford to offer low rates.
Former prime minister Edward Seaga addressing the Negril Chamber of Commerce annual grand gala dinner Saturday night. Seaga said that competition from Spanish hotels, which are able to offer lower rates, will wipe out small hotels if the problem is not dealt with quickly. (Photo: Horace Hines)
".They (Spanish hotels) are always running 90 per cent plus and even 100 per cent at times," Seaga told guests attending the Negril Chamber of Commerce annual grand gala dinner in this resort town Saturday night. "When we have a hotel running at that level of occupancy, it means that the price can be lowered."
According to Seaga, who once owned a hotel in Ocho Rios, the low rates being offered by the Spanish chains allow them to compete with small, struggling hotels.
"We are looking at a problem that is going to be very difficult and a possible wipe-out at sometime in the future," Seaga argued.
He said that the Spanish hotels own "hundreds of travel agencies that feed into their network and that is why they are always running 90 per cent plus and even 100 per cent at times".
"It is very difficult to compete with the Spanish hotel groups because they have an entirely different marketing structure to all the other marketing structures in the world," said Seaga. "Everyone of these Spanish groups - and I think there are seven of them now - own several hundred travel agencies and they have established hotels throughout several countries in the world. So that a Spanish traveller, when he goes to make preparations for his vacation and he goes into a travel agency, has to book into one of the hotels to which that travel agency is affiliated."
Seaga also argued that financial problems relating to the global economic crisis are not the worst problems with which we are now confronted. He said that it has always been an uphill task for small hotels to realise rates that will make them successful. That problem, he recommended, needs to be tackled "today, along with the other crisis in due course".
"We are misreading the occasion if we believe that the crisis in which we are passing is the worst problem that we have. It is not," said Seaga, who served as prime minister and minister of finance from 1980 to 1989. "That crisis has come and that crisis will go, but after it is gone, the problems that we had before will still be there. So that if we do not use the opportunity in dealing with this crisis and deal with the ones we had before and clean it up, then we are going to miss a glorious opportunity and we will end up back where we were before the crisis."
- Horace Hines
Sorry Eddie... the glorious opportunity WILL be missed because Jamaicans are more interested in recrimination, playing political games and promoting their favourite party ahead of the national interest.
It's a national psychosis.
Seaga's sentiment is identical to my post "Jamaica: This crisis is too good to waste"
Eddie has found religion at, of all places.... the "Intellectual Ghetto"
Seaga points to hotel trouble
Says small properties facing extinction due to lower rates offered by Spanish chains
Monday, May 25, 2009
NEGRIL, Westmoreland - Former prime minister Edward Seaga says small hotels are faced with extinction if swift action is not taken by the authorities to secure their market in the face of overpowering competition from Spanish hotel chains which can afford to offer low rates.
Former prime minister Edward Seaga addressing the Negril Chamber of Commerce annual grand gala dinner Saturday night. Seaga said that competition from Spanish hotels, which are able to offer lower rates, will wipe out small hotels if the problem is not dealt with quickly. (Photo: Horace Hines)".They (Spanish hotels) are always running 90 per cent plus and even 100 per cent at times," Seaga told guests attending the Negril Chamber of Commerce annual grand gala dinner in this resort town Saturday night. "When we have a hotel running at that level of occupancy, it means that the price can be lowered."
According to Seaga, who once owned a hotel in Ocho Rios, the low rates being offered by the Spanish chains allow them to compete with small, struggling hotels.
"We are looking at a problem that is going to be very difficult and a possible wipe-out at sometime in the future," Seaga argued.
He said that the Spanish hotels own "hundreds of travel agencies that feed into their network and that is why they are always running 90 per cent plus and even 100 per cent at times".
"It is very difficult to compete with the Spanish hotel groups because they have an entirely different marketing structure to all the other marketing structures in the world," said Seaga. "Everyone of these Spanish groups - and I think there are seven of them now - own several hundred travel agencies and they have established hotels throughout several countries in the world. So that a Spanish traveller, when he goes to make preparations for his vacation and he goes into a travel agency, has to book into one of the hotels to which that travel agency is affiliated."
Seaga also argued that financial problems relating to the global economic crisis are not the worst problems with which we are now confronted. He said that it has always been an uphill task for small hotels to realise rates that will make them successful. That problem, he recommended, needs to be tackled "today, along with the other crisis in due course".
"We are misreading the occasion if we believe that the crisis in which we are passing is the worst problem that we have. It is not," said Seaga, who served as prime minister and minister of finance from 1980 to 1989. "That crisis has come and that crisis will go, but after it is gone, the problems that we had before will still be there. So that if we do not use the opportunity in dealing with this crisis and deal with the ones we had before and clean it up, then we are going to miss a glorious opportunity and we will end up back where we were before the crisis."
- Horace Hines
Sorry Eddie... the glorious opportunity WILL be missed because Jamaicans are more interested in recrimination, playing political games and promoting their favourite party ahead of the national interest.
It's a national psychosis.
Seaga's sentiment is identical to my post "Jamaica: This crisis is too good to waste"
Eddie has found religion at, of all places.... the "Intellectual Ghetto"
Comment