Plantation Club on Seychelles still closed

This correspondent reported two years ago about the much under-fire government decision to literally expropriate the owners of the Plantation Club and then sell it off to Arab investors.

This correspondent reported two years ago about the much under-fire government decision to literally expropriate the owners of the Plantation Club and then sell it off to Arab investors. Full-mouthed promises then, however, translated into little action to modernize, rehabilitate, and refurbish the resort, and while in country recently, individuals spoken to were surprisingly “shtumm” about questions asked, both about what happened then and the status now.

One source from the island, however, confirmed that this is sort of embarrassing for government, which today would very likely not take the same decision again, and that while most of the workers remain laid off, only partial work on private residences has been done so far on the property. This reminds me of Kingdom Hotels plans in Kampala, which displaced a key primary school and teachers training college, and where nothing ever happened afterwards, leaving 17 acres of prime land fenced up and idle and leaving the country as a whole to lose out.

In closing, the source added another piece of insight: “If government took the decision at the time to force a modernization and refurbishment, which has never been done till now, they should also take a look at some of the older hotels on Mahe, which changed hands by sale and are being run down, too. So where is the equal treatment here? This remains a dark spot on us. You wrote about this yourself one or two weeks ago, and I have seen your TripAdvisor comments, so you know what I talk about. But the lack of work indicates it was maybe a purely politically motivated decision at the time, which makes it much worse.”

When asked if this same decision would take place again under the very much changed political circumstances of today, the source also said: “No, not today; things have changed too much for this to happen today again.”

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

Share to...