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| Edmund Bartlett (front/middle), Jamaica's minister of tourism, looks on as Ruben Becerra (front/right) of Karisma Hotels & Resorts inks a deal to bring 5,000 new rooms to Jamaica. // Photo by Joe Pike |
KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Travel Agent was on hand Tuesday afternoon for a monumental signing between Karisma Hotels & Resorts and the Jamaica Tourist Board.
The deal was officially signed by Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica's minister of tourism, and Ruben Becerra, vice president of corporate affairs and business development for Premiere Worldwide Marketing, the exclusive worldwide sales and marketing representative for Karisma Hotels & Resorts, at the historic Devon House.
It calls for 10 new Karisma Hotels & Resorts properties representing 5,000 new rooms in Jamaica. All of the rooms will be ready within the next 10 years, with the first scheduled to open around the summer of 2018, Becerra told Travel Agent.
Dubbed "Sugarcane," the resort represents an investment of more than $100 million, Rafael Feliz, Jr., corporate brand manager for Premier Worldwide Marketing, told Travel Agent last year.
Sugarcane will be located in the parish of St. Ann and is about 40 minutes from the Montego Bay airport. It is also 10 minutes from the famous Dunn's River Falls in Ocho Rios. Mandy Chomat, vice president of sales and marketing for Karisma Hotels & Resorts, told us in December that it will be the only area in the Caribbean with such a concentration of luxury hotels.
Travel Agent was told by several Karisma Hotels & Resorts officials that there has been no official discussion on whether the company's new Nickelodeon Hotels & Resorts brand will be included in the resort complex.
El Dorado Coming to Cap Cana
Travel Agent recently learned that Karisma Hotels & Resorts will be opening an El Dorado hotel in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. The roughly 400-room hotel will be a part of the Cap Cana resort complex, says Chomat. This will be a new build and will open in roughly 18 months, Chomat says.
Visit www.visitjamaica.com and www.karismahotels.com. Keep visiting www.travelagentcentral.com for all the latest travel news and be sure to follow Travel Agent's Joe Pike on Twitter @TravelPike.