RIU Palace Acquarelle set to open doors in May 2024

WESTERN BUREAU:

THE SPANISH hotel chain RIU Resorts says construction of its new 753-room property in Trelawny is now 60 per cent complete.

The RIU Palace Acquarelle, located in Falmouth, is scheduled to begin welcoming guests on May 4 next year and company executives are confident they will meet that deadline.

So confident are they that the hotel chain has already begun accepting bookings for the under-construction five-star hotel that promises enhanced luxury amenities, including the first swim-up rooms.

“We have six hotels in Jamaica and not once have we been delayed in our opening,” said Niurka Garcia-Linton, RIU’s director of sales, during a press conference on Friday to provide an update on the project.

During the ground-breaking ceremony for the project last year, RIU Resorts announced that it was pumping between US$80 million and US$100 million into its newest Jamaican hotel, creating over 800 jobs during the construction phase and approximately 450 long-term jobs.

RIU already operates six hotels with over 6,700 rooms in St Ann, Montego Bay and Negril, with over 3,300 mainly Jamaican employees.

Confidence in Jamaica

This is their first resort in Trelawny.

“In 2024 we are going to have seven hotels in Jamaica, all being well. Twenty-two years after the first hotel was opened, I think it speaks volumes of the confidence the RIU family has in Jamaica as a destination,” said Garcia-Linton.

She said tour operators began marketing the Acquarelle in July and “we are already seeing bookings coming into our system”.

“It’s two months that we have been open for sales so it’s still soft, but we are very, very confident that we are going to open in May very strong,” she said.

Francine Wright-Acosta, RIU construction and administration manager, said all structural work at the Acquarelle is expected to be completed by December.

“And by then it will just be the interior works and beach works,” she noted.

When completed, the hotel is expected to hire between 600 and 700 people, with Jamaicans making up the overwhelming majority, said RIU’s regional director for Jamaica, Frank Sondern.

“The component of foreign workers in all our hotels, if I put all six hotels [in Jamaica] together, is less than 0.5 per cent and that will be the same here,” Sondern told journalists.

He also pointed to the hotel chain’s track record of promoting Jamaicans to some of the top posts of general managers and assistant general managers.

Further, Sondern said RIU works “very closely” with local farmers, particularly in communities where its hotels are located.

“We import very few things …the major (part) of our food supply is local,” he insisted.

The Palace Acquarelle will be the first hotel in Jamaica to have swim-up rooms at the second floor level, said Garcia-Linton.

“We know that those rooms are going to be in great demand,” Sondern said.

The hotel will accept families, and will be home to an adult waterpark, children pool and slides and six restaurants, four of them categorised as specialty.

RIU also plans to broaden its showcase of Jamaica’s culture through weekly themed parties to be held at RIU Montego Bay.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com