John Murphy, Executive Vice President of efm Hospitality Solutions Limited, operators of the hotel along with its new General Manager Howard Spittle were high in praise of the staff and Tobago during a 45-minute meeting with Chief Secretary Orville London on Tuesday (9th April 2013) at the Calder Hall Administrative Complex.
“We are very proud of what we have done at the hotel in the past two years. I particularly want to thank our staff, we are proud of our staff; we have a wonderful staff at our hotel,” Murphy said.
Murphy said Magdalena has constantly promoted and highlighted the values and experiences “we have here in Tobago in the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada and the United States because people don’t come to Tobago to stay at the Magdalena, they come to experience Tobago and we are selling that at every juncture as we can”.
Spittle who came from Jamaica to take up his new posting said for many many years Caribbean hoteliers have seen something special about Tobago, “the beauty of the island, the cleanliness of the island and like the Caribbean used to be”.
He said Magdalena Grand which was a beautiful product had a real role to play. The staff there and the management are very impressive. He added that the tourism industry was starting to rebound worldwide particularly in Tobago and he wanted part of that.
Chief Secretary Orville London agreed with the tow. He said it was all a Tobago experience and therefore Tobagonians have got to recognise that they have a role to play in ensuring that this experience was so memorable that the visitor would not only wish to return but to encourage others to do so.
“The best advertisement for any tourism destination is its people and the way in which the people treat the visitor, we are not just talking about the workers at the hotel but the signals that we send and the fact that tourism does not only benefit the workers at the hotel, it benefits everybody. We are all aware of the challenges facing the sub sector when the tourism industry was floundering, we all have an opportunity to lead the revival and recognise the role we all have to play,” London said.
He said: “I was very comforted by the fact that both men have recognised the very unique attractiveness of Tobago and what they have said has given us comfort that the particular vision that we have for the development of tourism in Tobago is in fact paying off.”
London said the two have indicated that Tobago was quite marketable because unlike some destinations the island still has retained its pristine environment, it was still natural and it reminded some of the visitors what the Caribbean used to be and how they envisaged what the Caribbean should be.
I want to welcome both men again and to reiterate our commitment to the development of the tourism sector and of course to the enhancement of entities like the Magdalena. We are at a point in our tourism development where I believe that things have bottomed out and we are on the upsurge, all the indications are that tourism in Tobago is on the upswing again and I am confident that if we do the right thing we can return to those glory days in 2005 and 2006 and I am certain that in that journey Magdalena of course would be an important partner.