Inside the $40 million bet to save an island you’ve never heard of
A rural Newfoundland fishing community fights an uncertain future. It’s best hope to survive: a $1,250/night luxury hotel with valet service.
“There is inherent value in rural places that can be reclaimed and made relevant for 21st century life, and losing our small communities and the human ways of knowing they contain is neither inevitable nor necessary.”
— Shorefast Foundation
Many luxury properties have a charitable foundation. Our charitable foundation has a luxury inn,” says Zita Cobb, the woman behind an unusual effort to save the cod fishing community on Newfoundland’s rural Fogo Island. It’s a community that teeters in a remote bubble on the unforgiving edge of Earth, much as its future hangs on the progressive ideas of Mrs. Cobb.
That luxury property is Fogo Island Inn, and its concept of an Economic Nutrition Certification Mark is profound. Like the Everlane business model, which gives a transparent look into fashion industry pricing, the Economic Nutrition (CM) label shows how the inn’s nightly rate directly supports the local Fogo Island community.
Modeled after the nutrition label on an item in your local grocery store, Fogo Island Inn’s label breaks down the nightly rate — not for nutritional value — but following each guest dollar as it flows to labor, supplies, administration and other operational costs. There’s a line item for Surplus, which in the case of traditional for-profit hotels and resorts, is called revenue. The Inn notes its model is proud to reinvest all operating surpluses back into the island.
To highlight the community perspective, the label also shows what percentage of the rate stays on Fogo. At sixty-five percent, it’s significant. For what can’t be sourced locally, a guest sees how much stays in the province, in Canada, and beyond. It’s a simple and effective way to educate the traveler (and locals) about the impact of each dollar they choose to spend.
Yet, the label is the result of a much deeper mission. To understand the reason Fogo Island Inn even exists, it’s important to understand the island’s cod fishing heritage, its way of life, and Zita Cobb’s role in it.
Cobb was born into a simple fishing family, growing up in a 900 square-foot home with her hard-working parents and six brothers. They are descendants of the English and Irish settlers, who began fishing Fogo’s waters in the 1750’s, and built idyllic villages like Joe Batt’s Arm, Tilting and Seldom on their backs. They braved brutal winters and raging North Atlantic storms, all while being completely self-reliant for their needs.
As a young woman, Cobb ventured off the island for an education, and eventually found a career and vast fortune in fiber optics. While she was on the path to tech success, factory overfishing and a 1990’s government ban gutted the cod fishery, and with it, her home’s economic infrastructure. With that, Fogo’s population dwindled, and the community seemed another destined victim of the churning North Atlantic.
When she eventually reconnected with the island, Cobb found her former neighbors in need. For a place used to self-reliance, the circle was no longer complete. The community looked to her for help, but she soon realized philanthropy alone would be unsustainable. Reinvention was the only option.
In its prime, the island was full of tradespeople with skilled, traditional knowledge, able to craft beautiful handmade wooden boats, intricate traps, and traditional quilts. However, these trades languished without the economic backbone of cod. Cobb eventually realized that a social business model might be the only way to sustain the community without sterilizing their culture.
When traditional ways of life become antiquated, rural and isolated communities across the world have looked to reshape themselves without losing their sense of place or heritage. Often, hospitality and tourism have become the solution.
Cobb created an organization called Shorefast Foundation, named for the line which holds a cod trap to shore, and intently focused her business knowledge on new models to reshape the island’s economy. The foundation has a range of interests covering arts, fishing, wood working, microlending, and most importantly, geotourism. Enter Fogo Island Inn.
Shorefast defines geotourism as “practicing hospitality in a way that sustains and enhances the character of a place — its environment, heritage, art, food, culture, and the well-being of its people and communities.” It sees hospitality as “a way of sharing place, and of understanding each other socially, culturally, and geographically.”
Thus, Fogo Island Inn has been constructed completely with the Fogo Island community at its center – culturally, environmentally, structurally and economically.
Instead of charity, this has created employment opportunities where cod fishing shed them. It has created new supply chains for goods — local artisans converting their boat building skills to furniture building, and traditional quilters producing soft goods — supplying the hotel. And a menu built upon traditional foods and local ingredients keeps hand line fishing for wild cod a sustainable profession for some.
The Inn’s twenty-nine suites overlook a rocky and windswept coastline where an unusual seven seasons provide opportunities for minke whale and iceberg spotting, berry picking, hiking and other activities in both cold and warm months.
The architecture is modeled after traditional fishing structures standing atop stilts, known as shores. A strong Scandinavian influence includes floor to ceiling windows, inviting soft rays of northern light to cast long shadows across blonde wood interiors and artful accents. Furniture and soft goods are all crafted locally, and each quilt is even stitched with the name of the local artisan who made it.
To underscore its view of geotourism, the Inn plays matchmaker between each guest and a local resident, known as a Community Host, who tailors a personalized half-day tour as part of the all-inclusive nightly rate. Most start with an orientation drive of the island, but the outing can shift to whatever the guest finds intriguing. Regardless of focus, it’s meant to share the island’s history and culture from a local’s perspective, creating a bond between visitors and locals.
Cobb says, “We exist in relationship to the whole: the whole planet, the whole of humanity, the whole of existence. It is our job to find ways to belong to the whole while upholding the specificity of people and place.”
Shorefast’s strategy is meant to steer the island away from inauthentic tourist traps, neon signs, strip malls and other mass-tourism elements. It’s a local community’s story told in experiences, and through the canvas of a $40 million inn. The model reaches a discerning group of travelers, who value the authenticity, adventure and spontaneity of an untamed, untouristed wilderness. These travelers feel good about contributing to the local economy, and the community appreciates and values their presence.
Idealistic, yes. But the strategy is working, with Fogo Island Inn showing surpluses since 2016. Indeed, it’s a selfless approach which requires a generous philanthropist like Cobb to start and maintain. Not every community or hotel can operate in this way, but even so, any hotel can find new ways to connect guests with locals, and show both the community and travelers how tourism dollars work to benefit the community.
(photo: Bent Renè Synnevåg)
Guests are leaving Fogo with lifelong memories, having made authentic connections with the people and place. The Fogo community is proud to have an industry they can contribute to and benefit from. The circle is again complete.
