02 January, 2009

Tourism


How to lure wealthy golfers to Anguilla and make them feel betrayed and defrauded. Tell them in December 2008, on a major website, not on some obscure blog, that golfing is still available in Anguilla. To be exact, let the Anguilla Tourist Board have a page for daytime activities that contains a section that includes golf:



Let that section have a hot link to Land Activities. Let it link back to the same home page that depicts the information above.


If that does not work, tell them on Travel and Leisure, a major travel website claiming to be up to date as of January 2009, not on some obscure blog:



Include a link to Temenos Golf Club that will confirm their expectations:



Have 80 references to “golf” on the Government website, not one of which mentions that the golf course is closed.


Have a government, a Minister of Tourism, a Tourist Board and a tourism sector NGO that are so befuddled by the whole situation of the close down of Flag Luxury Resorts and the Temenos Golf Club that they do nothing effective to prevent wealthy travelers from coming here, feeling ripped off, and damn angry about it.


It always helps to have a public relations page featuring “Today's Stories, none of which is more recent at the time of writing than 8 December 2008.


For those of you that are lost, go back for a moment to the first extract featured above. You will note that there are three golfing opportunities suggested. The first is closed. The second no longer exists. The third has not yet opened for the season when I drove by it a few days ago.


Now that Mr Sillerman is here in Anguilla with ten of his best friends to play a round or two of golf on his golf course, perhaps he can tell us where we went wrong?


11 comments:

  1. Mr. Mitchell, you left out the Tourist Board's new website:
    http://charmingescapescollection.com :
    which was unveiled on 12 December. It says:

    "Golf
    Enjoy golfing at public and championship golf courses which includes the Greg Norman designed course at our luxury resorts Temenos Golf Club, or Play Around Miniature Golf...
    Temenos Golf Club - 264-498-700
    www.temenosanguilla.com"

    That's what it says, 498-700.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think this is the same Tourist Board that says under "Little Harbour" on this page:
    http://tinyurl.com/9hcmyj :

    "The Enclave at Cinnamon Reef’s Hemingway’s Restaurant sits atop the western bluff and serves tea, afternoon cocktails and an array of delicious breakfast, lunch & dinner cuisine."

    Perhaps they are unaware that Cinnamon Reef closed over six years ago. ATB has a budget of several million dollars a year. Don't they realise that people use the internet to make holiday decisions? What are they doing that's so important that they have no time to take care of their own website?

    ReplyDelete
  3. The new and improved ATB website links to the old, out of date ATB website.

    At least they finally updated an URL on the new website that I have been trying for 2 years to get them to update (on their old web site).

    If I approached my work (website design) the way they do, I would be out of a job and some of my clients would be bankrupt!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Let's see - if I list the top 3 industries in Anguilla it would be tourism, tourism ---and tourism! The ATB would be better of shutting down their site rather than giving all kinds if misinformation. Let's see, they promote dolphins (gone), golf (gone) putt-putt golf (gone), parasailing at Shoal Bay (gone),eat at Straw Hat at the Forrest (re-located), Flavours (gone), Bananas (gone), George's & Kemia, Cap Juluca (is no more) and you can even get information on 2007 hotel packages and 2006 dive packages. But why should the ATB care? They can just shake their heads and blame the whole downturn on the economy. Every business person in Anguilla should be outraged!

    ReplyDelete
  5. How 'bout this from both the ATB and Charming Escapes site:

    Parasailing & Paddleboats

    "Anguilla Watersports located on Shoal Bay, offers a class act parasailing excursion to visitors. Rides at 400 and 600 feet above Shoal Bay are available."

    Michele stopped parasailing 4 years ago and sold his boat to a guy in St. Martin. And I haven’t seen any paddleboats in 5 years. And last time I was at Shoal Bay, it was called “Shoal Bay Diving” – has been called that for years.

    Right on top of this stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tell people about the Jack Nicklaus golf course "scheduled to open in 2010"
    http://tinyurl.com/9akt75
    Show them pictures of Little Bay and God knows where and tell them it's in West End.

    Or tell them the same place is in Island Harbour
    http://tinyurl.com/7wc5yn
    It doesn't matter what you tell them, just get their money.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It is about time that the government do something about Flag. The Developers are in breach of the Terms of the M.O.A; their Lease with the Crown and their Aliens landholding Licence.

    On each and every one of these breaches the Government can act.

    The question is: Do they have the Gonads to do so?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Let's talk about water

    The Flag property has a water desal plant which the Government should take over so that we can have water on Anguilla

    All this delvelopment and no one thinks about where we are going to get water for our guests or those who live here

    ReplyDelete
  9. Flag's desal plant is and has been operating at full capacity and government has been buying all the surplus water they can produce for several months now.

    The problem is that the CM has a public relations man who doesn't produce any public relations, as well as a Department of Information and Broadcasting and a radio station that produces very little information about what's really going on at Flag; we have a newspaper editor who thinks the four top stories last week were about Christmas and weddings; and as a result we have a poorly informed population that thinks we have the right to "take over" someone's private property as long as they're foreigners.

    ReplyDelete
  10. As I disembarked the Shauna Ferry on St. Martin I saw four golfers with clubs getting ready to board. they lugged those clubs all the way to AXA for???
    The Govt. Should take over that beautiful course and provide instruction and discount rates for locals and $150.00 - $200 rounds for tourists.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I have some doors at customs, do you have ph # or info to get in touch with them. You can e-mail me and we can chat more.This doors were for Flag. How much of the building is completed. Pictures would help. Thanks
    jesse@chem-pruf.com

    ReplyDelete

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