One thousand new hotel rooms are going to be built in Jamaica
Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett is enthusiastic about the conclusion of discussions for constructing 1,000 new hotel rooms on the island, following talks at the FITUR 2021 travel show in Madrid, Spain, the first international trade show since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
Just more than 700 of the rooms will be constructed in Richmond, St Ann, and another 280 in Freeport, Montego Bay, St James.
“The big news is the completion of the discussion with regards to 1,000 more rooms from the Luque family, who are owners of the properties where the Secrets brand and its affiliated brands are located,” Bartlett said in a telephone interview.
“We did refer before about this possibility, but it is now a matter of fait accompli that there will add 1,000 more rooms to the stock that we have boasted. I think that this discussion is the first major face-to-face trade show for tourism since COVID has been very, very successful for Jamaica.”
The tourism minister said he was encouraged by talks held with the Melia Group.
“The discussion we had with the Melia group is interesting, and we look forward to completing those discussions as the week’s progress,” said Bartlett.
The tourism minister was also upbeat over discussions with other existing and potential investors.
“We had an opportunity to have discussions and dialogues with investors, and we had discussions with our investors who have already had products in Jamaica and a few others, particularly the Sampol company, which is a logistics company that will be looking with us to build out possibilities on the supply side, which is so important as we reposition tourism,” revealed Bartlett.
FITUR is a global meeting point for tourism professionals and the leading trade fair for inbound and outbound markets in Latin America. FITUR 2021, staged May 19-23, was digitised, complementing the face-to-face fair with FIFUR LiveConnect, an online platform that welcomed the entire professional tourism community, offering its members the opportunity to connect and share information.
The tourism minister was accompanied to FITUR 2021 by a minister in Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator Aubyn Hill. They will both move on to Saudi Arabia today, where Bartlett is scheduled to present at the Global Summit on Tourism Recovery.
“We concluded perhaps the most important international engagement since COVID in Spain, where the first international trade show since COVID was held. It brought just a little over 50,000 people, including countries, ministers, companies, hotels, service providers for the industry... just a confluence of all the moving parts that make up tourism was there,” said Bartlett.
“... We will be having a series of discussions with many different investment possibilities, including [talks with] the minister of investment and minister of tourism. I will be presenting at the global summit on tourism recovery, which will bring 30 ministers from all over the world and a host of tourism stakeholders who will be showcasing what the new tourism could look like..., and what are the thoughts with regards to the transformation that will take part in the tourism industry within post-COVID,” said Bartlett.
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