Dolphin Cove hunting new hotel partnership
Published:Friday | June 28, 2024 | 12:12 AM
Marine park operator Dolphin Cove Limited is seeking to have a family-friendly hotel developed on a 22-acre property at its dolphin park in Hanover.
Dolphin Cove Chairman and CEO Stafford Burrows says he has been scouting investors in the hospitality sector to build the hotel, which would complement the offerings of Dolphin Cove Montego Bay, which is actually located in Hanover, near Lucea. Montego Bay is in the adjoining parish of St James.
“We are talking to people in the hotel sector about building a hotel that will support Dolphin Cove,” Burrowes told the Financial Gleaner after the company’s annual general meeting in Kingston on Wednesday.
Emphasising that his company was “not going into the hotel business”, Burrowes said he was prepared to sell the land with specific instructions for the hotel’s development, or to enter into an arrangement with an experienced hotelier.
Dolphin Cove previously struck a deal with Reserve Investments Limited for the foreign company to develop a hotel at the property, but at last report it was put on hold amid the pandemic. That deal is now dead.
On Thursday, Dolphin Cove director John Bailey said Reserve Investments would no longer build the hotel, and that Dolphin Cove was essentially starting over from scratch to find a new partner.
The Hanover facility is one of the company’s four marine parks, which offer swimming and interactions with the friendly mammals, and feature sharks and stingrays.
In addition to parks at Lucea, Ocho Rios, Puerto Seco and Moon Palace, Dolphin Cove Limited also operates the Yaaman Adventure Park in Prospect, St Mary, which offers thrilling zipline and buggy rides, river and cooking tours, and other features.
Dolphin Cove’s first-quarter results for January-March showed revenue of US$4.9 million, which was the same as the first quarter of 2023.
However, profit after taxation slipped to US$1.4 million for the quarter, from US$1.6 million.
“Unfortunately, our revenue generation in this quarter was affected by unusual weather conditions, mainly during January and February, causing 30 cancelled cruise ship calls – representing an estimated revenue loss of US$250,000,” Dolphin Cove said in the financial report.
“On the other hand, the resumption of all-inclusives in some of our tours and the addition of branded products in our shops led to a slight increase in our variable cost.”
At the meeting, Burrowes was upbeat about the Ocho Rios and Yahman locations in particular, because of increased cruise shipping and the number of new hotel rooms under construction.
“We have had a very strong demand from cruise ship passengers wanting to use the buggies. It was more than we can provide… . The capacity of the parks has been such that we can increase them easily,” he said.