The Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association (SLHTA) recently held a meeting with 15 small hotel property owners and managers, regarding the difficulties they currently face in the tourism industry.

The objective of the meeting was to find ways in which the SLHTA can help improve business operations and ensure a safe and secure environment.

Karolin Troubetzkoy, President of the SLHTA, said: “We started out by really letting each hotel present to us how they were doing, and what were their challenges were.”

A major concern voiced by the small hotels was marketing.

The Minister for Tourism, Hon. Dominic Fedee, said: “The small hotels are at a disadvantage normally. The hotel owners have to do everything to attract more business.”

Minister Fedee highlighted the role of the Village Tourism initiative and the possible gains for small properties.

“Village Tourism will give you that umbrella body that you need for reservation, technology, marketing, training, tapping concessions, and quality standards—all that you need. Which is why we took a policy position as a government to expand heritage tourism, because heritage tourism deals with attractions only, but you also have a number of small business that are in the tourism sector that can do with some hand-holding.”

The small hotel owners meeting took place at the Bel-Jou Hotel, at La Pansee, Castries.