THE Fairmont Southampton is reconsidering development plans for its 80-acre property following a massive outcry against an initial proposal to build expensive villas on part of its golf course.The hotel’s managing director Norman Mastalir said the objections had been taken “seriously” and expressed every confidence that the public “would be happy” with the new design, which would be made public in the near future.

“We don’t do public consultation just for the sake of doing it,” he insisted. “We do it because we want to be good citizens of the community. We want to do the right thing for our neighbours.

“We’re redoing a lot of our development strategy. We’ve taken very seriously all the comments and objections that there were to the changes in the golf course.

“We’ve got a new plan that we’re ready to submit to Planning and we think that people are going to be very happy with it. It takes away a lot of the things that people were not happy with and still allows us to move forward and develop our business in a way that will help it to be sustainable.

“I think everyone will be happy. It’s taken a longer time, but we plan to be here for a long, long time running this hotel and we want to do it right. So we will be resubmitting our revised plans shortly and we’re hoping people will be pleased with the outcome.”

The resort had initially wanted to create a private residence club, shorter golf course and new beach facility as a means of redeveloping the property in accordance with industry trends.

With a host of new resorts proposed for development, the Mid-Ocean News asked Mr. Mastalir whether he was concerned that the redesign might make Fairmont less competitive.

“Our position is that we would love to see more major brands come to Bermuda,” he replied. “It could be viewed as competition in the short term, but in the long term the best thing that could happen here is to have more luxury product, to have more known names.

“What really concerns me is, what happens when these new hotels open? They’re going to want to have Bermudians working there too and where do you think they’ll go to find them?

“There are so few qualified Bermudians in the industry today. The ones that are really well trained and doing a great job are going to be the first ones that these new operators are going to try to hire. So we have a significant number of strategies in place to make sure this is a great place to work, that Bermudians especially, want to stay here.

The problem isn’t limited to Bermuda, the managing director insisted. He cited his experience in Canada, which boasts a population of 30 million, where hoteliers are finding it equally as difficult to staff properties with local workers.

“If you could have Bermudians filling all the jobs and sharing their culture and experience in their home and their island, that would be the ideal situation,” he said.

“It’s not just a Bermuda problem. Show me a hotel anywhere in North America — we have to recruit from as far away as Croatia, Australia, Europe and Mexico.”

As a member of the Resort Committee of the American Hotel & Lodging Association — an organisation which brings general managers from some of the country’s largest resorts together — Mr. Mastalir is aware that Bermuda’s issues mirror those faced by hoteliers in the United States.

“They talk about all the same things we do,” he said. “They can’t recruit enough people in the US today. It’s all a function of their economy being very strong — as is Bermuda’s.

“Our industry isn’t necessarily the best. We have seasonal lay-offs, we have slow seasons — challenges you might not necessarily face in other industries.

“But as we grow this business back to health, there will be less and less of that. There will be more people interested in working in hospitality because they can earn a more secure livelihood. I think we will soon see a shift.”

Hotel rethink