OBA: ‘One Empty Promise After Another’

September 30, 2012

“The Tourism Minister’s blunder over the status of the Park Hyatt development project has to be seen as symbolic of the chaotic and unsatisfactory style of governance of this government,” Shadow Minister for Business Development and Tourism Shawn Crockwell said.

Tourism Minister Wayne Furbert recently announced the Park Hyatt deal was” terminated,” and later said he “misspoke” and what he meant to say was the agreement had “lapsed.” The old Club Med property in St George’s was supposed to have had a Park Hyatt Resort constructed and opened by 2012.

Mr Crockwell said: “As we in the One Bermuda Alliance have said, over and over again, it is time that we remove politicians from running this crucial industry for Bermuda and establish a real tourism authority with a professional Chief Executive Officer who knows what he/she is doing.

“We need someone at the helm of tourism who understands what our tourism product needs. We need someone who has successfully negotiated hotel development leases before. We don’t need someone who doesn’t know when or if an agreement has been terminated or not,” said Mr Crockwell.

“The history of Bermuda tourism under this Government has been one empty promise after another,” continued Mr Crockwell. “Bermuda cannot afford five more years of careless management of this vital industry, which has the potential to grow hundreds if not thousands of Bermudians jobs. The people need results, not songs.”

The full statement by Mr Crockwell is below:

The Tourism Minister’s blunder over the status of the Park Hyatt development project has to be seen as symbolic of the chaotic and unsatisfactory style of governance of this government.

The new St George’s Hotel is a promise made by this government that they have once again failed to keep. Once again the people of Bermuda have been kept in the dark about progress or the lack of it in this scheme.

Frankly, had this government carried out proper due diligence in the first place, it would have known that Mr. Bazarian was not in a strong position to take on such a project as the Park Hyatt resort development. We know now, as a result of the numerous breaches of the terms of the agreement between the government and Mr. Bazarian.

This is another example of the people of Bermuda being given smoke and mirrors instead of much-needed results. And yet, despite Mr Bazarian’s limitations, which any prudent and thorough government would have known about, this government blew up the former Club Med facility in 2008, in a fantastically dramatic fashion, and tore down the golf club buildings. Again, we know now that that was just theatrics, designed to give the people of Bermuda false hope that this new hotel project was imminent.

Successive Tourism Ministers, including Minister Wayne Furbert, have continued to mislead the people of Bermuda, and specifically the people of St. George’s concerning this development, which is unacceptable and negligent. St. George’s and Bermuda need jobs and a revived tourism industry, not broken promises.

Now, we caution Bermudians to take whatever promise that comes out of the meetings between Minister Furbert and Mr. Bazarian this week with a grain of salt. Remember, an election is looming!

In a general sense, despite the energy exhibited by Minister Furbert towards our tourism industry since he took charge of it in November 2011, the reality is that none of his singing and gimmickry takes Bermuda a single step towards a turnaround of our failing industry.

We need someone at the helm of tourism who understands what our tourism product needs. We need someone who has successfully negotiated hotel development leases before. We don’t need someone who doesn’t know when or if an agreement has been terminated or not.

As we in the One Bermuda Alliance have said, over and over again, it is time that we remove politicians from running this crucial industry for Bermuda and establish a real tourism authority with a professional Chief Executive Officer who knows what he/she is doing.

We need someone at the helm of tourism who understands what our tourism product needs. We need someone who has successfully negotiated hotel development leases before. We don’t need someone who doesn’t know when or if an agreement has been terminated or not.

The history of Bermuda tourism under this Government has been one empty promise after another. Bermuda cannot afford five more years of careless management of this vital industry, which has the potential to grow hundreds if not thousands of Bermudians jobs. The people need results, not songs.

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Comments (18)

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  1. really?? says:

    Profound words Sir… Bring on the election

  2. C.B.A says:

    It sounds like the OBA is suggesting something that makes sense. Yet the plp continues to say that the OBA has no ideas.

  3. OBA or PLP who should I vote for? says:

    Crockwell didn’t the OBA voters say on Bernews a few weeks ago that they didn’t want ex cons running as political figures or was it just someone guilty of a serious offence? We might as well let the Uighurs run for the House as a MP since they made the NY Post on a 4 page article.

    • Will says:

      voting for one ex-con is better than voting in an entire party of ex and present criminals i’d say…at least this one (Crockwell) hasn’t screwed around with the public purse and actually has good ideas for bringing money into Bermuda; the complete opposite of the faith based tourism initiative

    • Ok Roach says:

      Shawn Crockwell’s never been to jail fool!

      • Will says:

        idiot of course he has..do drugs come to mind? hmm perhaps you should read up on politics YOU FOOL

      • Will says:

        silence…..you got burned

      • Crockwell is the worst! says:

        Shawn work as the Court Clerk, he was the the one in charge of the evidence safe that held the drugs. The police would bust a drug dealer take he/she to Court. After their conviction Shawn would take the drugs from the safe and sell them back on the streets. He was in a position off trust. Now he is running as a MP. This wasn’t weed he was taking from the Court Safe…….it was H and Cain!

        He was stealing from the police, Courts and drug dealers for his own selfish greed. Now he wants my families vote. Both parties have skeletons in their closets. I might as well vote for the UBP, too bad their not in my area. Damm

        • Crockwell is the worst! says:

          Oh yea and he served his time blah blah blah!

    • Zombie Apocalypse says:

      Ah. When you talked about ex-cons running as political figures, I thought you must be talking about Rolfe Commissiong, the poster boy for violent criminals later seeking elected office.

      What did you mean when you said “might as well let the Uighurs run”? Was that just a simple racist “joke” or did you have a serious point to make?

    • Come Correct says:

      How do you know they were oba voters? You don’t, nice way to race bait. Plp is soooo desperate.

  4. OBA (Only Brings Austerity) says:

    OK let me get this straight. The OBA are trashing a potential overseas investor. Oh this is rich. What next, the OBA will say, if your money isn’t blessed by Grant Gibbons it is not wanted………

    • Rick Rock says:

      Um, I hate to bring an inconvenient little detail, but it’s only an “investment” if they actually invest money. Turning up once every 18 months for a photo op prior to an election to renew a promise to build a luxury hotel ‘any minute now’ does not make you an ‘overseas investor’. In fact, this guy has no credibility at all. None. He’s a liar, which is one of the reasons why he and Dr Evil got along so well.

  5. Rick Olson says:

    We are all dreaming if you think any major development is happening until someone with money thinks money can actually be made in Betmuda, we have way to many issues for the smart money to even consider BDA Inc. This situation is all about politic’s and nothing to do about Bermuda and both parties are doing the predictable playing political football with our future.

  6. CHEEKUMS BI says:

    THE O.B.A. LOGO SYMBOLIZES WHAT THE PARTY IS FULL OF……FULL OF HOLES AND WE CAN SEE RIGHT THROUGH THEM …LOL