March 24, 2014

Dear Sir,

Despite the verbal promises of a better future, can you see the truth? The new tourism authority wants to teach your children the rudiments of servitude, but this exercise does not include your child if they attend one of the private schools. Hmmm!

The laws have been adjusted to allow Morgan’s Point to become another Tucker’s Town area, keep in mind your tax dollars are paying for the clean-up. Oh, remember take your pictures now, you will not be able to pass the security at the gates once it is completed. This swap I have always believed was unequal, not to deny the gentlemen who want to develop something, but the mammoth, huge acreage they were attaining to replace the South Shore site. In this regard, have you noticed very few of the people who protested with BEST even support the so-called clean-up of that property in Warwick. It is still a desolate piece of real estate with no value to enhance us going forward.

Does this sound familiar, three to four decades of paying taxes to upgrade and complete the National Sports Centre and now we are not allowed to walk on the turf or track without further personal investment, unless we are exceptional gifted athletes. But, lets’ not get lost in sideshows, the Tuckers Point boutique hotel was practically in the hands of receivership and here we are again trying to invent another mission of failure for Bermuda. The implementation of an added luxury hotel without a vibrant environment will only give us another white elephant to deal with.

Bermuda does not have a lush history or real magnate of physical historical significance to lift us to any higher plateau, Mr (Bill) Hanbury (Bermuda Tourism Authority CEO) was correct in pointing out the perimeters of our past tourism glory. However with that, it is a reality of continued failure if we do not coordinate a model of sustainable activity that is not hinged on golfing, beaching and sailing around our now extremely protected ocean. It is amazing Mr Dodwell and the Minister of Tourism have invited a number of people to enjoy the financial bounty we want to trade off for their participation in this hoax of a new Bermuda Tourism Authority which clearly has no vestiges of new resilient ideas about how to get Bermuda off the tourism basement.

Yes we need to build new hotels, and the minister of tourism has continually touted loudly of the need of brand connection. Tuckers Point has brand relatives but still no takers, so how can this new boutique hotel be justified. All I see is another way to cripple our future potential in terms of creating a new form of sustainable economic prowess and locking Bermuda into an old ritual whose format no longer works.

JOHN H HOLDIPP III