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| Dave Ames, chairman of Harlequin Hotels & Resorts. |
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — As part of our ongoing coverage of the 12th annual Luxury Travel Expo at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Travel Agent chatted with Dave Ames, chairman of a company that could be the next big thing in Caribbean luxury, Harlequin Hotels & Resorts.
The company just launched its first resort, the Buccament Bay Resort in St. Vincent and the Grenadines with a soft opening in August and a grand opening slated for April 3.
Now that the first resort is up and running and has been completely sold out most of the time since its soft opening, Ames feels confident enough to expand his brand throughout the Caribbean and the rest of the world.
Work has already begun on projects in St. Lucia, the Dominican Republic and Barbados, and plans are underway for other resorts in Jamaica and Brazil. Harlequin Hotels & Resort’s Harlequin Golf brand will continue to expand throughout the world, with other Harlequin Golf resorts possibly opening in China, Africa and India, although Ames says those destinations are merely being scouted for new projects the company has made no definite plans.
“We’re looking into a lot of places because we feel we can do it, we feel we have proved ourselves,” Ames said. “We wanted to be people of our word and when we delivered everything we promised to the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who pretty much served as our partners for Buccament, we feel that we are.”
The Harlequin Golf resort in St. Lucia will be called the Gary Player Golf Hotel and will come with an 18-hole, Gary Player-designed golf course roughly one mile from the property.
The Buccament Bay Resort will be St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ first ever five-star resort. It currently has 72 villas, including one-, two-, and four-bedroom villas. Next year, there will be a total of 200 villas. The year after, the resort will have a total of 368 villas.
Harelquin Hotels & Resorts also has its own planes to fly guests in directly from St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ two hubs, Barbados and St. Lucia. Guests won’t even have to clear customs until they arrive in St. Vincent and the Grenadines if they are staying at the resort. Visit www.harlequinhotelsandresorts.com.
And keep visiting www.travelagentcentral.com and www.luxuryta.com for more from our ongoing coverage of Luxury Travel Expo.