Ritz Carlton to Aruba … No Incentives … No Deal. Who Calls the shots in Aruba?
Posted in: Aruba,boycott,Business,Economy,Joran Van der Sloot,Natalee Holloway,Travel
Something seems very fishy is Aruba. Check out why The Ritz Carlton claims they are going back on their deal. They claim the Aruban government made promises and are not keeping them. Import duty exemptions. This shocks who?
The Ritz Carlton has informed the Aruban government that they are going back to their original plan for a high rise resort. The Ritz Carlton stated that the Aruban government has promised them incentives in granting them an exemption in paying import duties on building materials for the project. The Aruban government states that such an incentive is not legally possible because such a law was abolished in 2003.
Who promised who what? Just remember Aruba, internet search engines can be very interesting.
(AM Digital, click on article to enlarge)
A couple questions come to mind when reading this story between The Ritz Carlton and the Aruban Government.
1. Who runs the show in Aruba as to what is and is not allowed to be built on the island? It would almost appear that the developers and foreign entity have more power to dictate what is built, when, where and how.
2. If a law was abolished in 2003 to provide incentives to developers in waiving import taxes, how could anything have been promised to The Ritz Carlton? Or is this a convenient way for the Ritz Carlton to back out of a previously existing deal and for the Aruban government to save face for what might be the real reason?
Could it be that the Ritz see the present tourism trend in Aruba and is not willing to commit the funds that they stated they would. They claimed they would opt away from the high-rise so not to interfere with wind patters for wind surfing. So much for that idea.Of course why would the Ritz hold to a deal, especially since import taxes have been increased by the Aruban government that would eat into the Ritz’ bottom line.
Take a good look at this post from Aruba.com forum from November 2005 . Google can be so unforgiving. This post of a newspaper article clearly states the deal has been made and tax incentives have been granted by the Aruban government. So who is not telling the truth? It would appear that Aruba did offer exemptions to the Ritz Carlton to make the deal. So who is fibbing?
ORANJESTAD-It is official and approved, Ritz Carlton will be operational in Aruba in 2008. This comes after 3 years of negotiations between Bazarian International Financial Associates the representatives of Ritz Carlton and the government of Aruba. The government of Aruba granted Ritz Carlton attractive incentives that include exemption of import duties.
I guess the Ritz is rethinking that “most expensiveproject” in its history that was entered into back in November 2005 when the Aruban tourism was in full spin mode regarding its tourism numbers. Who in their right mind would invest this type of money into the teeth of a dwindling Aruban economy, coupled with an increased import tax? It is obvious that a tax incentive deal was made and someone wanted out of it.
Ritz Carlton will construct a 200 million US dollar hotel in Aruba in what is the most expensive project in the history of the luxury hotel chain. The Ritz property will be low-rise and consists out of 250 rooms.
On an even more bizarre note, check out the area where the Ritz Carlton was going to build. Look familiar? Right next door to the Marriott Hotel where Joran Van der Sloot claimed he and Natalee Holloway got out of the car and walked up the beach to the Fisherman’s Huts.
What are the odds that this would be the same place? One just can’t make this stuff up. This is also the area of the infamous white bag from the Aru-bay videos. Maybe while excavating on this footprint they will find Joran’s shoes … or Natalee Holloway.
Compare this area to this link which shows the road traveled by the red pickup from the Aru-bay videos.
Below is the area to the left of the Marriott facing it from the ocean where Joran Van der Sloot claims he was dropped off with Natalee Holloway. The future site of the Ritz Carlton.
Now compare the map to one where all of the above information fits into play.
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