Safety First

Monday, August 29, 2011

You probably will not see this in the glossy Barbados tourism literature ...

Kings Beach 08-28-11 (click in top portion of image to enlarge)
... but the above picture of tourists scotching on what's left of Kings Beach at low tide downdrift of the groynes in Lower Road View, St. Peter (southernmost groyne visible lower left) tells the sad tale of the economic and environmental demise of tourism in the Road View/Mullins Bay area. Since Kings Beach Hotel failed and Sandridge Hotel was sold to the condo developers the beach between Sandridge and Mullins Beach that once bustled with tourists has for all practical purposes become a tourist ghost town.

The 57 new condos at St. Peter's Bay which were "officially opened" about a year and a half ago are almost always empty or very close to it. It has even come to the attention of this blogger that a British family which booked a vacation there recently cancelled and stayed elsewhere on the island when it came to their attention that they would have been the only guests on the entire compound during their stay.

Even more sad is the fact that the three massive groynes constructed to build up the beach for the condo owners are now contributing to the hastening of the destruction of the beaches downdrift of them including King Beach immediately to the south as pictured above. It is now impossible to walk the beach between the former Sandrige Hotel and Mullins Beach at high tide and very difficult even at low tide. What we have in Road View Road/Mullins is an unmitigated environmental and economic disaster that getting worse by the minute and no one is addressing it.



See also: Save Our Shoreline

Click here for more Kings Beach photos




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2 comments:

  1. Concerned EnvironmentalistTue Aug 30, 09:27:00 AM

    Keep it up Frank - that's the only way to get attention. I believe we spend far too much on marketing a substandard product and not enough on upgrades of either plant or beaches.

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  2. I was desperately searching the holiday sites on the internet in order to return to the beautiful country in which we got married- 12 years ago in the grounds of Kings Beach Hotel. I was devastated to discover its fate, and shocked to read about the state of the bay. I would love to return with our children and show them where we got married, however I fear that we would be sadly disappointed by what we might find. I have been looking at this blog, which was last updated in August 2011 and I wonder if there has been any further developments in respect of the bay. I would love to hear from anyone that may know how the bay is doing now…
    Diana

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