Page 23 - GIF

Profile
Playing games helps build hotel tourism drive
Continued from page 20
Given the changes, Callaghan believes his late father-in-law would be pleased at the way the hotel and its interests have developed, but neither of his two children, Tamara, who with a degree in hotel management is married and living with two children in Scotland, and Bruno, a leading figure in Gibraltar’s insurance sector, are at present “not too keen to become involved”.
However, as Callaghan reflects: “Well, they still may do that. I don’t know; these are things in the future - nothing is written in stone.” For now Callaghan, who also was a founding member of the Gibraltar Heritage Trust, and has a small three-villa holiday rental business in Marrakesh, is focusing on expanding tourism initiatives.
“Tourism is not considered by politicians as a pillar of the economy,” he charges. “I think this is wrong since the vast majority of people, who vote in Gibraltar and who are not employed in the public sector, work in tourism or related activities, so an important part of the population have ambitions connected with tourism.”
There’s a need for infrastructure of simply chasing higher visitor numbers, investment – “imagine what could be done if “because Gibraltar is quite small and the
you could put £20m into the Upper Rock”, he muses, and “politicians inevitably look at short term solutions to ease the problem and there needs to be a longer term view as to where we want to be in 8-10 years’ time, because the lead-time for tourism infrastructure is 3 years.
Cable car
Warming to his subject, Callaghan insists: “You need to provide an environment where hotels will be built organically – when investors want to build hotels. You have to create the environment for entrepreneurs to come in and invest their own money and there’s a need for infrastructural investment in general, so that when people visit Gibraltar they walk away with a feeling of ‘wow, what a place that is, we must tell our friends about it’.”
He would like to see a 30-year plan for a cable car for visitors from Casemates Square to the Northern Defences – “the finest historical fortification in Gibraltar”.
However, he doesn’t think it’s a matter
more people you flood Gibraltar with - who, at the onset, seem to be good for the jurisdiction - in the longer term, we could end up with a Venice syndrome where there are
so many tourists that some of the residents are having to leave”!
As more accommodation is developed, there will be differing requirements for types and standards of hotels and restaurants, he admits, yet Callaghan cautions: “What is clear is that we should be going for a product of excellence”.
The Caleta Hotel at Catalan Bay
www.gibraltarinternational.com
Gibraltar International 23