Marriott Eyes the Caribbean for Further Expansion Plans

Marriott International will expand its brand presence in the Caribbean region in Barbados, Curacao, and Puerto Rico, and in Latin America in Costa Rica, according to Ed Fuller, president and managing director of international lodging.

The hotel firm also will launch a Passport Initiative early next month, inviting its competitors to join Marriott in an all-out effort to publicize the new passport regulations set to take effect January 1, 2007, requiring passports for all U.S. travelers re-entering to the U.S. by air and sea from Mexico, the Caribbean, Bermuda, Central and South America and Canada.

Currently, the hotel firm has 15 properties in nine destinations with a total of 4,981 rooms spanning four lodging brands –JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts in the luxury tier, Marriott Hotels & Resorts and Renaissance Hotels & Resorts in the upscale deluxe tier, and Courtyard by Marriott Hotels in the moderately-priced tier.

The 120-room Courtyard by Marriott Bridgetown in Barbados, the first Courtyard brand on the island and the sixth in the Caribbean, is scheduled to open in 2007 in Hastings, two miles south of Bridgetown´s center.

The 240-room Renaissance Resort Curacao will open in 2008 in Willemstad as a component of a retail and entertainment complex at Riffort Village at the entrance to St. Anna Bay and the cruise port.

In Puerto Rico´s San Juan, the Renaissance La Concha Hotel will open in early 2007 on the site of the former 248-room La Concha Hotel on Condado Beach, which has undergone a complete architectural and structural renovation.

The 310-room JW Marriott Guanacaste Resort & Spa in Costa Rica will open in late 2008.

Marriott´s two Cancun properties reopened earlier this summer, following “eight-plus months” of reconstruction following Hurricane Wilma in the fall of 2005.