ROSEAU, DOMINICA: Silver Beach Resort and Spa’s partnership with Marriott International will boost Dominica’s potential for attracting larger quantities of tourists to the island.
With more than 100 million members, Marriott International boasts the largest loyalty rewards programme internationally. The programme presents the perfect opportunity for Silver Beach Resort and Spa to directly target loyal Marriott members with promotions encouraging travel to Dominica.
“If we are doing a promotion for Independence Celebrations, as part of the Marriott family we can now email 100 million people around the world, invite them to visit Dominica and Silver Beach to participate in our Independence Celebration, and offer them incentives to do so,” said Dr. Michael Lawrence, a director at Silver Beach Development – the developer of the resort.
“Suppose we wish to target only a subset of the 100 Million, who enjoy hiking, then that’s also possible through the Marriott members program. This presents tremendous opportunities for Dominica. It really places us on the world stage!”
Lawrence’s sentiments are seconded by Marriott’s Director for Development of the Caribbean and Latin America, Bojan Kumer. “You can reach out to these 100 million members and promote this hotel, and promote Dominica as a luxury hotel destination in the Caribbean,” he said.
The tremendous opportunity for global promotion of Dominica to Marriott’s 100 million loyalty members is one that is enthusiastically embraced by the country’s Prime Minister, Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit.
Skerrit, who spoke at Silver Beach Resort and Spa’s brand announcement ceremony on January 9, said his vision for taking Dominica to the next level had always included the incorporation of major hotel brands, such as Marriott International.
“It is important that we do everything in our power as a nation to have this project started and completed on time, so that the Marriott brand can be used for the marketing of our country the world over,” the Prime Minister said.
“Nature’s natural attributes have served us well over the years, but we believe that the incorporation of international brands, such as Marriott, shall aid greatly in defining and redefining our island as a must-see locale in the Caribbean and the western world.”
Hon. Robert Tonge, Dominica’s Minister for Tourism and Urban Renewal, anticipates being able to use analytics to specifically target those Marriott loyalty members, who are in the market for exactly what the country has to offer.
“I am confident that the Marriott brand, with over 6,000 properties in 120 countries, will find Dominica to be one of the most sought after locations. Our offering of a combination of heritage, cultural, urban and environmental experiences, will be a hit with guests,” Tonge said.
As has been the experience with the introduction of international brands to smaller Caribbean islands in the past, it is anticipated that destination marketing to Marriott’s loyalty members will also bring business to other hotels on island. Loyalty members impressed with the island, who for whatever reason may not be able to stay at Silver Beach Resort and Spa, could turn their attention to other hotels on island for accommodation.
Dominica’s government has established a special fund to help bring the island’s existing hotel stock up to desired quality levels. Fifteen million dollars of readily available financing was allocated in the 2017 fiscal budget, which existing hotels and restaurants can access to help upgrade their properties.
With such an anticipated boost to the island’s tourist arrivals, the official opening of Silver Beach Resort and Spa in 2019, is much awaited.
A plan for a resort is an awesome idea….I applaud you…..HOWEVER….wouldn’t it make more sense if we had a better and easier way for people to get to Dominica. I’m thinking….if people come to DA on a cruise, they are not going to want to spend more money to stay in a resort. Cruise ships usually just come and go.
In order to come to Dominica from the US (Boston), if I leave at 3:30am….I get to Dominica at 5pm…with two connecting flights and a ridiculous lay over. At the end of the day, it’s completely exhausting. What if, just what if, we improve the traveling aspect, I think tourists would be elated to come to Dominica. Dominica was rated one of the best hidden travel destinations. But…making it easy for people to come there would open up the tourist industry beyond what you can ever imagine.
I have read many of the comments so far. Marriott is a win win for us. We need to consider that many remote heavy torist destinations (eg: Telluride, Aspen, Sun Valley… and those are winter-only destinations) do not have international airport even close by. Many have smaller airports close by nd either drive, private jet or other means to get to destination. Food for thought, use Google.
Excellent post. Most people in Dominica have never left the island and have been brainwashed to believe an international airport will magically boost our tourist product. British Airways don’t have direct flights to St. Kitts, they fly via Antigua, and to Grenada its via Barbados. I don’t think they got direct flights to St. Lucia either. Tourists should expect layovers, and indirect flights during ANY journey. Especially to an exotic island.
I lived in New Mexico and just to get to San Juan, I had to stop in Denver, Atl, and Miami. Direct Flights are not the norm. To get were you’re travelling you usually have to go though the airline’s hub even if its 100’s of miles off course.
Personally, not having an international airport would solidify Dominica as a niche eco-tourist/Agro-tourist market, not one that is overrun with people looking for beaches or cheap island prostitutes. Either way the cart has to come before the horse, available hotel rooms has to be boosted first.
It would be a good thing to see at least one of these projects complete because at the moment all we’re hearing is just talk and pictures of groundbreaking. When will we see/hear about opening ceremonies, cutting of ribbons and champagne corks popping!!
Nothing ever gets completed in Dominica, why?-!
This passport selling business needs transparency and accountability…Example:::How many diplomatic passports have been sold?To whom?The price? What was done with the money?
After reviewing my last post on this subject matter, I rested quite well. There’s no need to be in a frenzy here, because we’re talking as if this hotel will be completed on time. Based on the record of these crooks, I sincerely doubt that this will happen anytime soon. If they were unable to complete a 50 room guest house in Portsmouth, what gives us any faith that this new “White Elephant” will enjoy a different fate?
When there is Airport talk, allyou saying it doh have place for tourist to sleep….Build Hotel, now is “ways de Airport?”
Garcon name me the last big hotel that them fellas completed? You can’t name one, because it hasn’t been done. All they doing is drawing nice picture to fool people. So long they start a little guest house in Portsmouth and it cannot finish up till now.
Them fellas can’t fool me. They can fool Dominicans with galvanize, plywood and cheap D-Special Rum.
Let us build a airport with a runway that can accommodate long range flights and bring in the visitors.
There will be no Hotel. Stop being made an a off time and time again..These diversionary topics are meant to lull you back to sleep, thereby forgetting the real issue at hand. The missing $millions from the Passports.
Stay focused.
I am trying, but this psyche is very difficult to understand. The same government who has consistently said that we do not have the tourist traffic to warrant an international airport, every year is popping up with plans for massive hotel development. If we are to accept your argument (faulty as it is), then who exactly is going to be staying in these hotels? The economy is in the tank, so locals certainly won’t be booking stay-cations, as much as they might want to. Why must our thinking as a country always be so backwards?
Would it not make sense to provide proper means and attractions to first get people to the country, then we can debate how to accommodate them? Would we not be better off having the problem of many visitors and existing hotels booked to capacity, than new hotels standing empty because no one can get to them?
I hope you all can understand what I am about to say.
People don’t leave their homes all over the world to visit a hotel. There must be something more to offer the visitor, more than just staying at a hotel with the name “Marriott” associated with it, so it now goes beyond building an international airport to get the people to Dominica.
Now it is time to come up with things for the visitor to do while staying at the newly proposed “Marriott”, and if there is nothing more to attract them to Dominica other than to stay at another “Marriott”, then the money spent building it will have been sadly wasted.
I have been wrong about many things before, and I may be wrong about this also, this is just a thought.
I hope its not LIAT your depending on to fill new hotels?
One of the first things that need to be done, is to consider by what form of transport they are going to bring these tourist to the island. If my experience of travelling to or from the Island is anything to go by, there will be plenty of empty rooms.
what kind of transport technology are you talking about?.we are talking about an international airport.our tourism industry cannot operate without one
i couldn’t agree with you more.we need an international airport.the problem goes back from pierre charles time.when he took bribe from antigua government to don’t build it.he therefore shifted it to melville hall airport,renovating it and put night landing on it.then when pierre charles died,Skerrit was sworn in and he simply continue pierre charles plan.to prove that his plan was right,he brought in Ralph Gonsalves to tell Dominicans that we don’t need an international airport.then went behind Skerrit back and build one for St.vincent and the Grenadines.right now we are the only island of this size that doesn’t have an international airport.what a shame on us.this other islands clearly understand our potential.so they simply try to fight us down.Skerrit need to wake up,and stop keeping down your country to please other caribbean governments.
When you begin emailing those potential 100 million tourist and they begin to respond and try something new, how will they get to Dominica? By what method of transportation will they arrive on the island?
Rest yourself boss, by that time we’ll have teleportation technology.
i like your world sir… can i live in it?
swim ur sot
lol you r so right.