The Hon Parliamentary Representative for the Soufriere constituency, Denise Charles and the Hon Minister for Tourism, Senator Robert Tonge visited the construction site of the new Jungle Bay Resort last Friday.
The purpose of the visit was to get a first-hand look at the progress of work and to dialogue with the employees.
“This resort is important for the development of our constituency, not because it is going to be a beautiful site for our visitors but it’s going to generate income in Soufriere…so I want to encourage you to continue the hard work and to own the project…,” Hon Charles told the employees.
The government officials were taken on a tour of the construction site by proprietor of Jungle Bay, Sam Raphael.
Raphael is pleased with the new location at Morne Acouma, Soufriere. In 2015, the original site of the resort in Delices was destroyed during the passing of Tropical Storm Erika.
“It[the new site] has a lot of the attributes of the east but some of the things that we have that are special here are the hot springs and the marine reserve and so it’s actually an ideal site for the second coming of Jungle Bay…,” Raphael said.
Construction of the new site began in January of this year. There are currently thirty men employed, most from the Soufriere area, under the supervision of Oliver St. John.
Raphael says by summer 2017 close to 100 men will be employed on the project.
Phase one of construction will be completed in December 2018.
The re-development of Jungle Bay Resort is financed under the Citizenship by Investment Programme.