On November 4, 2018 The Tamarind Tree Hotel & Restaurant in Dominica, W.I. was awarded with the British Guild of Travel Writers BGTW Annual Tourism Award for Best Tourism Project in the Wider World Category for their project “Clearance and Restoration of Segment 11 of the Waitukubuli National Trail (WNT) in Dominica.
Following the passage of Hurricane Maria in the night from Sept 18 to Sep 19, 2017 not only houses, roads, entire plantations and villages have been badly damaged or destroyed but also Dominica’s natural sites and hiking trails.
“When we realized that all the hiking trails in the national parks as well as the entire Waitukubuli National Trail had been heavily compromised we were very concerned about Dominica’s land-based tourism activities. The Discover Dominica Authority launched a VolonTourism initiative and we decided to partake by adopting a segment of the WNT and to create a VolonTourism package” says Annette Peyer Loerner, co-owner of The Tamarind Tree Hotel & Restaurant in Salisbury. “Being a guide since 2003 and having specialized in hiking, I am very passionate about the only long-distance hiking trail in the Caribbean, that leads across the entire Nature Isle on 185 kms in 14 segments or 14 day-hikes respectively.
We launched a fund raiser among our past and even future clients, family, friends and well wishers via e-mail and Facebook and were able to raise a remarkable amount of money, the biggest donation coming from “Walter und Louise M. Davidson-Stiftung” in Switzerland.”
After careful preparation in collaboration with the Division of Forestry, Wildlife and National Parks and the Waitukubuli National Trail Management Unit works started in February 2018.
The British Tour Operator MotMot was the first to promote the VolonTourism package and this drew Mr Nigel Tisdall’s attention to the project, a travel writer for National Geographic and a member of the BGTW. He visited Dominica in early April and actively participated in the clearing of seg. 11 of the WNT.
“In early July we received an e-mail from Mr Tisdall that he was going to submit our project for the 2018 British Guild of Travel Writers Tourism Awards. We were so proud about the recognition, little would it matter whether we were going to win or not. Just being nominated for such a prestigious award was a huge compliment! In September, when we were informed to be among the finalists, I grew at least 10 cm” Annette remembers winkingly.
The clearance and restoration work on seg. 11 are still ongoing with roughly 4,5kms of the 13kms being cleared to date.
A fundraiser has been launched on GoFundMe. Donations to support the project can be made on:
The current airport as it is constructed is the 800 pound gorilla in the room. We do not have true night-landing capabilities, as US registered aircraft, will “Never” approach Melville Hall via a water approach. This one fact alone, leaves us vulnerable to an inefficient hub-and-spoke system called LIAT. Unless we have the capability to receive direct flights from the international community, we will continue to suffer. Those who are quick to curse out Dominicans abroad who complain must understand that we are patriotic too, but the patience to accept nonsense from one generation to the next is simply frustrating. Stories of people spending thousands of dollars to purchase new tickets, because they missed connecting flights are all too common.
There is a lack of awareness amongst our leaders and a sense of complacency as well. The European Union Countries have a more generous vacation policy, when compared to the U.S. which is much closer to us. With a two-week holiday, every day counts. If you have a family and you’re traveling with small children, it’s even worse. The traveling public wants direct flights to and from their destination, with luggage arriving with them. NY to Puerto Rico $US 435.00 round trip. Puerto Rico to Dominica on American Eagle was the same price for an hour and forty-five minute flight. Airlines need 80% of their seats filled to turn a profit, or else you will be paying them to fly empty to your destination. The dynamics here are multi-fold.
All these hotels and who are going to say at these hotels when you don’t have a international airport,bad roads etc
Though this is Not the biggest hotel in Dominica by any means it has certainly accomplished a very huge feat & congratulations & accolades of the highest order are due & deserved.
God Bless!
When will the project to completely clear the trail finish. There are sections that are still blocked.
Come and Help !
I’m fedup with traveling to this country, i was highly embarrassed inviting my boss to Dominica, we left and no one received their bags. and if i can recall this has been happening since in the 80s. I was so piss I sold my house land and begging family to do the same this country needs to be re-birth, economically this place is so over price , i really dont know how the government dont see the issues , peaple will die like flies, the residence are so stress out and obese and all they eat is fried foods horrible this country is Finnish , lazy beggars. #nativeshelpbuildyourcountry
And we are FED UP with the likes of you criticising our Country. No one forces you to travel to Dominica. We don’t want or need you in our country. Stay where you are ungrateful so and so and
save your venom and criticism for the place and people where you are residing. Sacau Buwoo!
‘Paul’ get your facts/spelling correct. Our country is Dominica/Waitukubuli , we are not Finnish! Check up the Nordic countries, you will find that the people of Finland are referred to as Finnish. Perhaps you meant that where you are residing is FINISHED and that the people are Lazy Bums who “will die like flies” That would be more appropriate.
It is people like you who give the country bad names. Yes the government sucks, yes we have bad assecc to Dominica, yes we have bad infrastructure but there is no place like home. You chose to sell your home and land. Wherever you are no matter what it will NEVER be your home.
Your boss may have laughed at you for being so naive. Had a bad experience with leaving Dominica in 2015 and one Canadian couple remarked that they had a great time in Dominica, but it was liat who messed up.
Get a life and if you do not want Dominica stay off DNO
I have a question, is this the biggest hotel in Dominica?
Congratulations to everyone that made an effort to make this happen !
What does it profit Dominica for a hotel to get “International hotel Award” when getting to Dominica is as complicated as an Algebra? How good is an international hotel award In 2018, when it is so damn difficult and expensive to get to Dominica? During the summer I had friends ibn Florida trying to come down for a wedding and they got lost in the algebra. They flew Florida to Pueto Rico and couldn’t get to DA. Then JetBlue flew them from PR to NY to catch the 11PM flight to Barbados, yet when they got to Barbados they had to stay 4 days to get a flight to DA and by the time they got home Bride and groom had time to make their baby. The government boasting of arrangement they made with Norwegian and Air Anilles but what they not saying is it will cost you a fortune. Nowegian air to Guadeloupe after Dec. 14 is about US$700 round trip. Air Antilles charges US$150 each way so total about $1000 from Fl to DA whereas you could spend half that amount to go to any other island.
So you are saying that we are on the right path with Government policy on Tourism…..But all we need is an international airport accommodating direct same day arrivals. We need bigger planes and quicker travel to obtain economic of scale. We have to keep the government on its toes to deliver on the promised airport.
This is the most important piece of infrastructure on the agenda of national development.
There are many people who will invest in the hotel, travel and tourist markets. So we need the airport ASAP. This is one time when our small population gives us a comparable advantage.
Can you imagine the impact if tourism is bundled/clustered with agriculture (food) and construction as the main driver of our economy ?
We also need casinos. One at Portsmouth and one at Soufriere ……Vegas style.
@Same old same old…can you stop exaggerating prices?. I swear you guys dont like to hear anything good about your Country. In terms of flights I paid $845 for a round trip from NYC to DA via St. Marteen arriving the same day. I also visited Trinidad around the same time last year which was a direct flight
Guess how much I paid for a round trip ticket? $835 a difference of $10. Sometimes I wonder if some of you think that there are no other Dominicans residing overseas.
DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TP GET TO BORA BORA?
GOOD project but for transparency purposes u could have at least stated an approximation of money’s collected to date .
Transparency, you say? Ha! Ted, In case you didn’t know, “transparency” is the Dominican equivalent of the f-word — It is not appropriate for public consumption.