CASTRIES, St Lucia (CMC) – Several small to medium hotel properties here are counting their losses following a strike by LIAT pilots last week.
Executive Vice President of the St Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association (SLHTA) Noorani Azeez said in addition to hundreds of passengers across the region, hoteliers were also affected.
“For quite a few of our small properties, the disruption really hit the bottom line in a very hard way,” he said.
Azeez said preliminary estimates from some of the small properties which are members of the SLHTA indicate that properties suffered well over EC$200 000 in leisure bookings in addition to business-type conferences and bookings.
“In some instances properties have reported that conferences scheduled for the week of the strike have now been rescheduled for early in the New Year,” Azeez said.
He said having lost the opportunity now, it has become necessary to sell rooms and conferences at lower rates and that also amounts to losses in revenue.