By Marilyn Green - Leisure Travel News
April 17, 2000
NEW YORK -- The Puerto Rico Tourism Company is making strong moves to expand its markets as 3,199 rooms enter the
island's inventory during the next few years.
"For the year 2000 we should reach our goal of 16,000 hotels rooms constructed or under construction,"
said Jose A. Corujo, executive director of the PRTC. "And we should also have diversified our product in several
directions."
The island is marketing heavily in Europe and Latin America as well as the United States; a $9.8 million television
advertising campaign initiated last fall will continue through this summer.
Recent development plans support the ongoing policy of promoting tourism outside the San Juan area. Puerto Rico
is also looking to the business travel sector to expand the season with meetings and conventions, which are generally
not held during the high leisure season.
Courting Corporate
In the domestic meetings market, Puerto Rico expects to do well with the triple advantage of its exotic attractions,
proximity to the mainland and tax breaks for corporate meetings on U.S. soil. This expectation has been backed
by substantial investment: Construction begins this month on the new convention center, which is scheduled to open
in 2002 with 500,000 square feet of meeting space. The PRTC also has a letter of understanding with Marriott for
an adjacent 800-room Convention Center Hotel in Isla Grande.
In addition, the Westin Rio Mar Resort in Rio Grande will provide 250 rooms, branded as the Ocean Villas at Rio
Mar Beach; construction of the first 59 rooms should be completed by September.
The luxury market, too, is growing with properties like Rosewood's new Martineau Bay Resort in Vieques, which opens
this fall with 286 rooms to the tune of a $42.6 million investment.
Outside the traditional name-brand hotel sector, Puerto Rico hopes to appeal to the history and authenticity buffs
and to the value-oriented visitor by marketing the paradores, the little country inns. Puerto Rico's new Internet
initiative will allow these small, individual properties reach and access under the umbrella of Puerto Rican tourism,
so visitors can actually see each one.
Condo-hotels and timeshare units are proliferating on the island in response to demand, Carujo said, combined with
traditional hotels or on their own. Among them is the Cayo Largo Intercontinental Beach Resort in Fajardo, with
314 rooms and 100 keys for the condo-hotel, scheduled to open in July 2001; they have an additional phase planned
to add 220 rooms.
The Embassy Suites Hotel Dorado del Mar will combine 91 condo units and 174 suites, plus a golf course, all scheduled
for completion in December.
Also targeted for completion at the end of 2000, the second phase of the Hyatt Hacienda del Mar Vacation Club Timeshare,
which recently acquired a license to sell its 84 rooms as timeshares. It will be completed in November as part
of the Hyatt Regency Cerromar Hotel en Dorado.
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