ANTIGUA, Guatemala – As part of our coverage of the Centro America Travel Market, Travel Agent sat down with representatives of Barcelo Hotels & Resorts and learned that the company is planning to expand to Panama City, Panama and is also looking into San Salvador, El Salvador.
Carlos Ruiz, regional director of sales and marketing for Central and South America, told Travel Agent that Barcelo is looking to open a roughly 300-room, city hotel in Panama City by 2012 and has just begun the planning process for a 200-room city hotel in San Salvador.
“Panama should really be getting going soon, but the San Salvador project has just begun in the planning stages,” he told us. “We still have proposals out there and we are hoping to get a deal done within the next year.”
The news is big for Barcelo’s Latin America portfolio since it comes off the heels of its recently renovated Barcelo Guatemala City property, a roughly 400-room city hotel that was once a Marriott about three years ago.
Visit www.barcelo.com.