By Bryant Trew

The recent news about the Green family moving ahead with redeveloping the Sonesta Beach property should be seen as another flicker of hope in our tourism industry.

Their new Princess Beach Club is yet another very welcome addition to the modernisation of Bermuda’s tourism product.

Most importantly, we should embrace this opportunity with open arms given the critical state of our economy.

Bermuda should be grateful not just for the Princess Beach Club, but also for the millions being invested into Hamilton Princess’ redevelopment and modernisation.

Additionally, we should be grateful for the flickers of hope at Elbow Beach, Newstead, Lantana and Grand Atlantic.

The cold, hard economic facts are that you cannot provide service without facilities, and you cannot provide facilities without investment.

Simply put, without these investments, we are ruined.

Especially given the magnitude of our debt, there are very valid concerns about the unknown details of the OBA’s business plans. Nevertheless, it would appear that their pro-business strategy is beginning to yield results both in actual investment and renewed interest in Bermuda’s tourism potential.

Clearly the OBA must be doing something right to encourage investors to consider Bermuda, so we should be grateful for their efforts, too.

But what about the rest of us? What role do we have to play here? Getting investors to consider Bermuda is just one part of the battle. Convincing them to invest here is far more challenging.

Should a potential investor visit Bermuda (as one would expect) they will judge our ability to produce a return on their investment and require that our return be better than alternative jurisdictions. Unfortunately, I’ve seen far too many establishments chase those investment dollars away.

For example, this summer I visited Restaurant One on a Saturday afternoon.

At the time it was at about 30% capacity, so it wasn’t even remotely busy.

Our waiter’s initial greeting was one of indifference.

A moment after we were seated, the patrons sitting near us began to smoke.

Especially with children present, we decided to relocate to the other side of the venue.

This seemed to irritate the staff.

Service took an even further nosedive from there. Menus should be presented as soon as you sit down, but this took a minute and a half. It took six additional minutes to receive four drinks (nothing mixed).

An additional seven minutes we’re needed to receive one of two simple starters (fried bites).

Even worse, it took 30 minutes after the starters were received for the main courses to be delivered.

Someone who wasn’t dressed in a waiter’s uniform delivered the main courses. Our waiter was nowhere to be seen, so we assume that the main courses were forgotten. Consequently, the food was lukewarm.

Additionally, it tasted bland and looked very unattractive for the price. This was one of the very rare occasions that I refused to tip.

A few weeks later we had no choice but to go back to Restaurant One for drinks. This time the restaurant was completely empty.

Our friends had arrived in advance, and they had been told that they’d have to sit at the bar, because tables are for dining only.

But when we arrived, the Maître D offered a table to the four of us for greater comfort. This gesture was greatly appreciated, but our waitress seemed annoyed for that reason or another.

Whereas a welcoming attitude would have led us to eventually have dinner there, the waitress instead drove us into the arms of the nearest restaurant where the staff quite obviously appreciated our business.

Now imagine for just one minute if we were working for a potential investor!

Thankfully there are many restaurants that do a stellar job.

Restaurants like Harry’s and Red know that someone who comes in for drinks might be persuaded to have dinner.

New restaurants like Ruby Murrys know that being good is not enough, and they therefore deliver a far better product and service than their competitors.

Restaurants like Barracuda Grill insist upon delivering a stellar dining experience, because they know that such experiences are what will keep patrons coming back.

These restaurants provide the kind of experience that we want potential investors to see across the entire island.

Potential investors understand that lower quality food and service means lower tourist satisfaction… which means lower demand for Bermuda vacations… which means a lower return on their investment.

Therefore, improving Bermuda’s quality of hospitality services is a prerequisite to attracting further investment.

With $2,000,000,000 of debt strapped to our backs, Bermuda finds itself stuck between a rock and a hard place.

To put it bluntly, we have to give investors reasons to risk their capital on us. We have to demonstrate to them that we can deliver an experience that meets (or exceeds) our visitors’ expectations.

And given the fierce competition we face, we simply can’t take these flickers of opportunity for granted.

We probably won’t be given another chance.

Email: bryanttrew@mac.com