Business View Caribbean - November 2014 7
Editor’s
Note
Welcome to the December issue of Business View Carib-
bean, the magazine version of a burgeoning multi-plat-
form presence that also includes Facebook (Business
View Magazine), Twitter (@BizViewMag) and LinkedIn
(Business View Publishing).
Taking front and center stage this month is an in-depth
feature piece on one of the most successful companies
on the island of Barbados – the Elegant Hotels Group
– which was formed in 1998 and brought together five
Barbados properties that had been constructed indepen-
dently under a common umbrella of luxury amenities,
services, dining options, water sports and entertainment
options.
The group’s properties include Colony Club, Crystal Cove,
Tamarind, Turtle Beach and The House, along with Daph-
ne’s, an Italian restaurant that’s been ranked among the
nation’s 10 most popular eating establishments by the
Zagat’s Best of Barbados travel guide. The group oper-
ates a “Dine Around Program,” in which a complimentary
daytime water taxi allows transportation between its West
Coast resorts to enhance culinary variety.
“Strategically, it works well for us because it’s a wide-
ranging portfolio,” said Sunil Chatrani, the group’s chief
executive officer since January 2012. “It caters to a wide
cross-section of guests. All of them have some things in
common and we’re really going for that personalized, in-
timate feel – a bit of a unique feel. But what really works
for us in the business community is having the diverse
portfolio that’s got something for everybody’s taste.
“The brand association provides trust in the quality and
the service that we deliver.”
That quest for trust could cover larger ground between
now and 2020, Chatrani said.
“There’s an expansion plan in the game,” he said. “The
platform is there for growth and I think that’s what we
have to do. And it would have to be outside of Barbados
for us to expand as more of a regional player. To be safe,
I would say within the next five years that we’d see an
expansion plan rolled out. We’d like to see it a lot earlier
than that, but these things take time.
“We have to be careful, because the Elegant name and
the Elegant brand is important to us. We want to make
sure that whomever we align ourselves with, the prod-
uct will stand up to the quality and the standard that the
name represents.”
Check out the Elegant Hotels Group piece as well as other
feature stories in this month’s issue, alongside supple-
mental content in the form of Top 10 lists, the Opening
Lines section and the second edition of our end-of-mag-
azine feature – “Exit Interview” – which will include snip-
pets from one of the month’s best interview conversa-
tions.
Please feel free to contact me with any comments or cri-
tiques, as well as suggestions for ways we can continue
to provide a publication that’s pertinent, educational and
entertaining.
Until next month…
Regards,
Lyle Fitzsimmons
Vice President, Editorial
Business View Magazine
