Post by LSDeep on Feb 3, 2005 8:38:16 GMT -5
ITH its sparkling turquoise waters, unblemished string of white-sand islands and location in the middle of the world's third-largest coral reef, the 40-island archipelago of Turks and Caicos in the British West Indies possesses a physical beauty that, until the past decade or so, had gone largely unnoticed.
True, the islands acquired a bit of international notoriety in the 1990's when they became a haven for drug smuggling, and serious scuba divers have long known about the exceptionally clear waters surrounding the archipelago. But until relatively recently, most mainstream tourists from the United States - especially those seeking the kind of luxury they could easily find on the nearby Bahamas - have stayed away from the islands, only eight of which are inhabited. The reasons were simple: Few major airlines flew there direct, and with the exception of a Club Med on the developed island of Providenciales, there were very few places - especially upscale resorts - to stay.
All that began to change in the early 1990's, with the arrival of a handful of luxury hotels, and it is certainly no longer the case. In the past year, there has been a 25 percent increase in flights, most of it from the United States, which translates into 1,000 more seats a week, and new hotels are opening at an exuberant pace.
While the Club Med, which opened in 1984, was the first large-scale resort development, the Turks and Caicos didn't begin to gain cachet as an upscale vacation spot until the 21-suite Grace Bay Club opened in 1993 on Providenciales's north shore.
"When we first arrived, the Turks and Caicos were quietly being talked about in high-end development circles as the future 'hot' new Caribbean destination," said Mark Durliat, managing partner for Grace Bay Club. "We looked at St. Barts, Grand Cayman, Nevis, Harbour Island in the Bahamas and we ultimately decided on the Turks and Caicos because it offered more space."
Since then, the Grace Bay Club has gotten quite a bit of company. More than 20 resorts have opened in the past 10 years, among them Point Grace, Villa Renaissance, also on Grace Bay, and, most notably, Parrot Cay, which was opened in 1998 by the Singaporean hotelier Christina Ong. The private island resort, where one-bedroom villas can run in excess of $2,000 a night - gave the Turks and Caicos some celebrity glitter with guests like Donna Karan, Barbra Streisand and Britney Spears. Along with Grace Bay Club, Point Grace and Sands at Point Grace, Parrot Cay was one of four resorts on Turks and Caicos that recently made Condé Nast Traveler's Gold List for 2005. Grace Bay Club and Parrot Cay were also included for the first time on Travel and Leisure's list of 500 top hotels for 2005.
With such attention, the islands have sealed their reputation as an exclusive destination, attracting an affluent crowd that, at least for now, isn't much of a crowd at all: 154,961 visitors in 2003, a mere drop in the bucket compared with 4.95 million visitors to the Bahamas in the same year.
But awareness of the islands is growing, especially among American travelers, who have contributed to the roughly 90 percent growth in tourism there over the last 10 years, according to Caesar Campbell, executive director of the Turks and Caicos Hotel and Tourism Association. To satisfy that demand, development has been brisk. "In the last 10 years, we've gone from 1,000 hotel rooms to about double that number," said Mr. Campbell.
And the building boom continues. Grace Bay Club is completing a $45 million renovation that will include upgrading its 21 suites, a new restaurant and a 5,000-square-foot spa and fitness center. Rates begin at $425 a night for a junior suite off-season, soaring to $7,700 a night for the Grace Bay penthouse suite during the holiday season. In August, the resort is scheduled to unveil the Villas at Grace Bay Club with 38 condos that though privately owned, will be available for guest bookings.
Elsewhere on Providenciales, Amanresorts will soon be competing with Parrot Cay. Initial reports said that Amanyara, the company's first Caribbean outpost, on Providenciales' as-yet-undeveloped Northwest Point, would open at the end of this year, although Amanresorts said there was still no definite date.
Also in the pipeline is a $70 million Ritz-Carlton development, which plans to build a 125-room hotel, the Molasses Reef, and 60 villas on West Caicos. According to Mr. Campbell of the tourism association, the properties will not open until 2006 or 2007. This is the first time in 100 years that 6,000-acre West Caicos will be opening its shores to development. The island has two national parks and prohibits cars, and will limit the acreage of the new projects to 350 and the number of people on the island to 1,000 at any given time.
But the biggest buzz surrounds the Palms, an $85 million boutique resort that is scheduled to open next month. The Palms, situated on Grace Bay Beach, is backed by the Canadian developer Stan Hartling, who also built the Sands, a condo hotel on Grace Bay that opened in 1998. The new resort will offer 72 suites with marble floors, mahogany four-poster beds and flat-screen televisions. The suites, available for purchase as $1.2 million condo units, sold out a year before the opening.
The Palms offers a 15,000-square-foot spa, and a tai chi studio overlooking a water garden. Luxury rooms cost $400 off-season, while the eight penthouse oceanfront suites are $10,000 a night during the holidays.
According to William Anderson, managing director of the Palms, the most important factor in deciding to build in Turks and Caicos was proximity. "It's about three hours from J.F.K.," he said, "so one can be here by lunch time or come for a long weekend."
Terry McCabe, a travel agent with Altour International, a travel company based in New York, also emphasizes that the islands are served by major airlines. "You can get to a beautiful white beach with the crystal-clear water without ever having to get on a small plane," said Ms. McCabe. "Jet service is a big deal to some people." Travelers now have quite a few options. There are nonstop flights to Turks and Caicos from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Charlotte, N.C., Atlanta and Miami. This gives the islands an advantage over some competing destinations. It can take three flights to get from the East Coast to St. Barts or the Grenadines, for example, with the last leg on tiny puddle-jumpers.
Rising demand has coaxed US Airways, for example, to expand service to 30 Caribbean destinations from 9 since 2000. "That takes us to places that are off the traditional beaten path," said Amy Kudwa, a spokeswoman for the airline, which operates daily service to the Turks and Caicos international airport on Providenciales from Charlotte and weekly service from Philadelphia. On March 6, the airline will add five more nonstop departures a week. American and Delta are the two other major airlines offering nonstop flights from the United States.
"For a place that still has a remote feel, it's very easy to get to now," said Becky Veith, a Caribbean travel specialist with North Coast Travel in Erie, Pa. "But I still get people asking me where it is."
For now, Turks and Caicos's aura of seclusion remains a powerful selling point. When Seema Mehta decided to take a trip to the islands last May, she was looking for a quick four-day weekend. Many of her friends went on jaunts to Miami or the Bahamas, but "the Turks and Caicos seemed a lot less commercial," said Ms. Mehta, a partner with C&M Media, a New York public relations firm.
Those who want to visit islands other than Providenciales can get there by boat or small plane, but there are plans to link them with roadways modeled on the causeway system in the Florida Keys.
And the capital island, Grand Turk, is hurrying to catch up to Providenciales' tourism boom. In December, ground was broken for a new cruise terminal, and the airport has recently been upgraded to accept large jets. "By the time the cruise terminal is finished, the increase in numbers will be considerable," said Ralph Higgs, the deputy director of the Turks and Caicos Tourism Board.
Is all this activity going to undermine the tranquillity of the Turks and Caicos? Mr. Campbell, of the tourism association, insists that it won't.
"We're still relatively untouched,"' he said. "We are what the other islands were 20 years ago."
But to visitors like Tammy Peters, an avid Caribbean traveler from New York, there have been a few too many changes since she first visited the Turks and Caicos in the early 1990's. "It was really a divers' paradise back then," she said, adding that when she went there last spring, "I was pretty surprised that there was so much construction going on."
Ms. McCabe, the travel agent, also thinks that the Turks and Caicos should be cautious. "This is not the undiscovered paradise that it once was," she said. "If they're not careful, they're going to become the Miami of the Caribbean."
SOURCE - New York Times
i guess we are looking at a lot of new jobs in the diveindustry over the next couple years and the destruction of some beautyful reefs over the following decade.
True, the islands acquired a bit of international notoriety in the 1990's when they became a haven for drug smuggling, and serious scuba divers have long known about the exceptionally clear waters surrounding the archipelago. But until relatively recently, most mainstream tourists from the United States - especially those seeking the kind of luxury they could easily find on the nearby Bahamas - have stayed away from the islands, only eight of which are inhabited. The reasons were simple: Few major airlines flew there direct, and with the exception of a Club Med on the developed island of Providenciales, there were very few places - especially upscale resorts - to stay.
All that began to change in the early 1990's, with the arrival of a handful of luxury hotels, and it is certainly no longer the case. In the past year, there has been a 25 percent increase in flights, most of it from the United States, which translates into 1,000 more seats a week, and new hotels are opening at an exuberant pace.
While the Club Med, which opened in 1984, was the first large-scale resort development, the Turks and Caicos didn't begin to gain cachet as an upscale vacation spot until the 21-suite Grace Bay Club opened in 1993 on Providenciales's north shore.
"When we first arrived, the Turks and Caicos were quietly being talked about in high-end development circles as the future 'hot' new Caribbean destination," said Mark Durliat, managing partner for Grace Bay Club. "We looked at St. Barts, Grand Cayman, Nevis, Harbour Island in the Bahamas and we ultimately decided on the Turks and Caicos because it offered more space."
Since then, the Grace Bay Club has gotten quite a bit of company. More than 20 resorts have opened in the past 10 years, among them Point Grace, Villa Renaissance, also on Grace Bay, and, most notably, Parrot Cay, which was opened in 1998 by the Singaporean hotelier Christina Ong. The private island resort, where one-bedroom villas can run in excess of $2,000 a night - gave the Turks and Caicos some celebrity glitter with guests like Donna Karan, Barbra Streisand and Britney Spears. Along with Grace Bay Club, Point Grace and Sands at Point Grace, Parrot Cay was one of four resorts on Turks and Caicos that recently made Condé Nast Traveler's Gold List for 2005. Grace Bay Club and Parrot Cay were also included for the first time on Travel and Leisure's list of 500 top hotels for 2005.
With such attention, the islands have sealed their reputation as an exclusive destination, attracting an affluent crowd that, at least for now, isn't much of a crowd at all: 154,961 visitors in 2003, a mere drop in the bucket compared with 4.95 million visitors to the Bahamas in the same year.
But awareness of the islands is growing, especially among American travelers, who have contributed to the roughly 90 percent growth in tourism there over the last 10 years, according to Caesar Campbell, executive director of the Turks and Caicos Hotel and Tourism Association. To satisfy that demand, development has been brisk. "In the last 10 years, we've gone from 1,000 hotel rooms to about double that number," said Mr. Campbell.
And the building boom continues. Grace Bay Club is completing a $45 million renovation that will include upgrading its 21 suites, a new restaurant and a 5,000-square-foot spa and fitness center. Rates begin at $425 a night for a junior suite off-season, soaring to $7,700 a night for the Grace Bay penthouse suite during the holiday season. In August, the resort is scheduled to unveil the Villas at Grace Bay Club with 38 condos that though privately owned, will be available for guest bookings.
Elsewhere on Providenciales, Amanresorts will soon be competing with Parrot Cay. Initial reports said that Amanyara, the company's first Caribbean outpost, on Providenciales' as-yet-undeveloped Northwest Point, would open at the end of this year, although Amanresorts said there was still no definite date.
Also in the pipeline is a $70 million Ritz-Carlton development, which plans to build a 125-room hotel, the Molasses Reef, and 60 villas on West Caicos. According to Mr. Campbell of the tourism association, the properties will not open until 2006 or 2007. This is the first time in 100 years that 6,000-acre West Caicos will be opening its shores to development. The island has two national parks and prohibits cars, and will limit the acreage of the new projects to 350 and the number of people on the island to 1,000 at any given time.
But the biggest buzz surrounds the Palms, an $85 million boutique resort that is scheduled to open next month. The Palms, situated on Grace Bay Beach, is backed by the Canadian developer Stan Hartling, who also built the Sands, a condo hotel on Grace Bay that opened in 1998. The new resort will offer 72 suites with marble floors, mahogany four-poster beds and flat-screen televisions. The suites, available for purchase as $1.2 million condo units, sold out a year before the opening.
The Palms offers a 15,000-square-foot spa, and a tai chi studio overlooking a water garden. Luxury rooms cost $400 off-season, while the eight penthouse oceanfront suites are $10,000 a night during the holidays.
According to William Anderson, managing director of the Palms, the most important factor in deciding to build in Turks and Caicos was proximity. "It's about three hours from J.F.K.," he said, "so one can be here by lunch time or come for a long weekend."
Terry McCabe, a travel agent with Altour International, a travel company based in New York, also emphasizes that the islands are served by major airlines. "You can get to a beautiful white beach with the crystal-clear water without ever having to get on a small plane," said Ms. McCabe. "Jet service is a big deal to some people." Travelers now have quite a few options. There are nonstop flights to Turks and Caicos from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Charlotte, N.C., Atlanta and Miami. This gives the islands an advantage over some competing destinations. It can take three flights to get from the East Coast to St. Barts or the Grenadines, for example, with the last leg on tiny puddle-jumpers.
Rising demand has coaxed US Airways, for example, to expand service to 30 Caribbean destinations from 9 since 2000. "That takes us to places that are off the traditional beaten path," said Amy Kudwa, a spokeswoman for the airline, which operates daily service to the Turks and Caicos international airport on Providenciales from Charlotte and weekly service from Philadelphia. On March 6, the airline will add five more nonstop departures a week. American and Delta are the two other major airlines offering nonstop flights from the United States.
"For a place that still has a remote feel, it's very easy to get to now," said Becky Veith, a Caribbean travel specialist with North Coast Travel in Erie, Pa. "But I still get people asking me where it is."
For now, Turks and Caicos's aura of seclusion remains a powerful selling point. When Seema Mehta decided to take a trip to the islands last May, she was looking for a quick four-day weekend. Many of her friends went on jaunts to Miami or the Bahamas, but "the Turks and Caicos seemed a lot less commercial," said Ms. Mehta, a partner with C&M Media, a New York public relations firm.
Those who want to visit islands other than Providenciales can get there by boat or small plane, but there are plans to link them with roadways modeled on the causeway system in the Florida Keys.
And the capital island, Grand Turk, is hurrying to catch up to Providenciales' tourism boom. In December, ground was broken for a new cruise terminal, and the airport has recently been upgraded to accept large jets. "By the time the cruise terminal is finished, the increase in numbers will be considerable," said Ralph Higgs, the deputy director of the Turks and Caicos Tourism Board.
Is all this activity going to undermine the tranquillity of the Turks and Caicos? Mr. Campbell, of the tourism association, insists that it won't.
"We're still relatively untouched,"' he said. "We are what the other islands were 20 years ago."
But to visitors like Tammy Peters, an avid Caribbean traveler from New York, there have been a few too many changes since she first visited the Turks and Caicos in the early 1990's. "It was really a divers' paradise back then," she said, adding that when she went there last spring, "I was pretty surprised that there was so much construction going on."
Ms. McCabe, the travel agent, also thinks that the Turks and Caicos should be cautious. "This is not the undiscovered paradise that it once was," she said. "If they're not careful, they're going to become the Miami of the Caribbean."
SOURCE - New York Times
i guess we are looking at a lot of new jobs in the diveindustry over the next couple years and the destruction of some beautyful reefs over the following decade.