Tourism expansion v turtle nests: the dispute dividing communities in one Tobago resort — SkimNews
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- Superior Hotels received a 99-year lease to develop a $500m (£378m), 200-room resort on 12 hectares (30 acres) at Rocky Point after winning a 2021 Eteck expression-of-interest process that drew competing bids from community groups.
- More than 100 people submitted written objections to the Environmental Management Authority during the environmental impact assessment, after which the EMA granted Superior Hotels a Certificate of Environmental Clearance attached to roughly 20 pages of mitigation measures.
- Environmental biologist Michelle Cazabon-Mannette of SpeSeas warns that clearing coastal vegetation for the hotel would damage one of Tobago's most important nesting beaches for hawksbill and leatherback turtles, noting that the tree canopy 'keeps the sand cool' for egg-laying.
- Duane Kenny of the Rocky Point Foundation, whose competing expression-of-interest bid proposed a small eco-resort with nature trails, turtle watching, and a wax museum showcasing Amerindian artefacts found at the site, says the project's concrete footprint remains too large after amendments.
- Superior Hotels chairman John Aboud declined to comment beyond forwarding the CEC, while Marriott International stated it has no agreement with Superior Hotels and is not involved in the proposed Rocky Point development.
- The Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (Canari) is advocating community-based tourism as an alternative, citing its smaller-scale Speyside project where, per senior technical officer Dylis McDonald, 'conservation, restoration and protection are core' to the enterprise.
Why it matters: The Rocky Point fight puts a $500m price tag on Tobago's tourism ambitions: Superior Hotels' 99-year lease and the EMA's environmental clearance commit the island to a 200-room resort before final designs — which critics say still don't address tree-clearing at a critical turtle nesting beach — have even been produced, with final approval from the Town and Country Planning Division still under review.
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