Argentina Basking in Hotel Bonanza

Thanks to a booming travel industry and lower costs in U.S. dollars, Argentine tourist authorities presented as many as 90 different projects for building hotels in the country for up to $253.4 million, this according to a report issued by the Tourism Department that indicates all those new resorts will open between this year and 2006.

Comparatively speaking, the lump sum of money earmarked for these projects is not lower than the $770 million used up by the government to build three-, four- and five-star hotels between 1991 and 2001, even though the local currency was then up to par with the greenback.

Around 55 percent of the new funds were furnished by international hotel chains, while the remaining 45 percent jumped out of the pockets of independent businesspeople.

Among the top-ten development projects now on the drawing board, the refurbishment of the Duhau Hotel, located in one of Buenos Aires’s spiffiest neighborhoods, is no doubt one of the highlights. Also there, Hyatt Hotels is planning to open a new resort in 2006 with an initial investment of $65 million.

French company Accor is building a lodging in the Puerto Madero area, also in the nation’s capital, at a price tag of $15 million. In that same neighborhood, local impresario Alan Faena will open his own hotel this year (El Porteño) housed in an old mansion built in 1902 that underwent an all-out remodeling process with the help of French architect Philippe Starck and a $20 million investment package.