By Sue-Ann Wayow
THE Manta Lodge Hotel and Dive Centre in Tobago has been refurbished at a cost of just over $27 million.
The two-star hotel at Speyside was handed over from the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (UDECOTT) to the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) on Wednesday.
Speaking at the handover ceremony, THA’s Chief Secretary Farley Augustine gave an overview of the hotel that was built in 1995.
He said in 2015, the former THA executive purchased two hotels, at a combined figure of $32 million with $8 million being spent for the purchase of Manta Lodge.
The other hotel purchased was Sanctuary Villas at Black Rock.
The 24-room two-storey hotel is nestled at the foot of the rainforest, opposite the beach and convenient to popular dive spots. With a refurbished swimming pool and a small parking area, Augustine said additional work will be done to extend parking facilities.
Augustine said, “In 2020, the THA embarked on this hotel, which would result in a 24-room hotel and dive centre, complete with a refurbished swimming pool, parking for four, inclusive of the differently abled, and we added a variation cost of $4,904,833.56. This brings the total spend to date for Manta Lodge to $27,353,630.36, that is, between 2015 when the hotel was purchased and 2023, when we are now receiving the keys for the refurbished hotel.”
He also said management will be outsourced.
“We will put it out on the market for a request for proposals so that anybody with the best proposal for managing this hotel and operationalising this hotel, we will welcome in the Tobago space. We will put that out not just for a local audience but for an international audience so that we can attract the best possible managers for the space,” Augustine said.
