Finding the development balance

When it comes to development, Cape Verde has been doing rather a lot of it in the past few years. Economic growth has been high, investment has soared, tourism has flourished and infrastructure has been gradually developing, including property, hotels, airports and roads.

 All this has seen some parts of the archipelago concentrating on all-in, sun and sand package holidays in large hotels, but this is not yet the situation on Santiago, whose development is at an earlier stage, according to Voice of America (VOA).

 This, of course, means that Santiago is in some respects a blank canvas, one where new development may be carried out in a different way. Such a move would be welcomed by some, such as German expat Sibylle Schellman, who runs a restaurant on the island near the small village of Calheta with her husband.

 She told VOA: "The government right now and the ministers of tourism, they only have in mind these big hotels. And they think, cause there was a study once, which said that all included tourism is the best thing for a third world country.. so they said, well, that is what they want and they want to have a water source & they want to have golf and a marina," describing the sort of things she hopes will not happen on Santiago.

 Her particular complaint is that where there have been large tourism developments, this has isolated holidaymakers from Cape Verdean culture, as well as meaning locals cannot make money from the situation, since opening restaurants nearby is little use if visitors are eating on-site.

 The appeal made by Mrs Schellman, therefore, is that as Santiago develops, more consideration is given to integrating tourism into the local culture, so that the two can mix. Of course, it could be that the island has a chance to offer this as a niche alternative, developing an authentic cultural experience as an alternative to the hermeutically-sealed package holiday.

 Of course, with developments like Sambala's, which has the advantage of being close to Praia, one way forward could be to make the most of the capital city's own features as a way of offering Europeans something more.

 Some believe that the city may indeed be the focus of new development in a way that will please tourists, one being a poster on the capeverdeinfo.com website from Scotland, who said: "I think that long term, Praia will become the new Cape Town, assuming the casino is built and Praia bay is cleaned up as planned."

 The blogger in question had bought a villa at the Sambala resort on Santiago and also one elsewhere in the archipelago and having become familiarised with the islands, said the plan now is to keep the Santiago home and sell the other one, reasoning: "I see so much more potential on Santiago to keep my interest. If people are flocking to Cape Town which is crime-ridden, engulfed by shanty towns, and cold for 6 months of the year, then Santiago definitely has potential to go one better. A bit of pioneering spirit and financial risk required."

 So it seems that while some parts of Cape Verde will have one idea of how they are going to progress, it could be that Santiago will be able to march to a different - and possibly much more exciting - tune.

This article has been brought to you be Sambala; the developer for Cape Verde Property.

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