Sunset at the Palms, one of Jamaica´s newest eco-friendly, all-inclusive resort´s, has just refreshed the property with a total makeover. Stilt houses are scattered throughout the ten-acre tropical garden, bordering the Negril Royal Palm Preserve. Sixty-five "tree house-style" rooms –once featured in “Architectural Digest”- are tucked among the flowers and towering trees, steps away from ´Bloody Bay´.

The Holiday Inn Sunspree Hotel in Aruba will go through a $5 million all-out refurbishment that must be completed by the end of the ongoing year. The Intercontinental Hotels Group has approved and committed to spend $5 million as part of the first phase of an ongoing program that should last approximately three years.

The front office of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Aruba announced this week that the lodging has just earned the 2004 ICP Premium Circle Award and the 2005 Paragon Award granted by CMI Magazine. The Aruba Hyatt received the two awards in recognition to the resort´s outstanding meetings facilities, preferred by the insurance and financial services meeting executives and by the readers of Corporate Meetings & Incentives Magazine.

Marriott International, Inc. and the Marriott family´s private foundation, The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Foundation, have pledged a total of $3 million to aid employees and victims of Hurricane Katrina. “Hurricane Katrina has caused heartbreaking loss for the people of the Gulf Coast region, including our associates, their families and their communities,” said J.W. "Bill" Marriott, Jr., chairman and CEO of Marriott International, Inc. “Our company and the Marriott family extend our deepest sympathy and concern to all those affected by this tragedy.”

Intercontinental Hotels Group, the world´s largest and most global hotel company, continues its aggressive expansion with the opening of the 65-room, 15-story Holiday Inn Express Avenida Sumaré-Sao Paulo in Brazil. The opening of this hotel marks IHG´s 28th Holiday Inn (HI) in Latin America and IHG´s 15th property in Brazil. With the addition of Sao Paulo´s first Holiday Inn Express hotel, the Intercontinental Hotels Group portfolio in Sao Paulo is now represented by five of its brands.

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, Asia Pacific´s leading luxury hotel group, launched a new, proprietary sales and marketing training program in August 2005 - "STAR" (Shangri-La Training for Aggressive Revenues). More than $3 million will be spent over the next four years to STAR train 2,000 sales and marketing employees in hotels and worldwide sales offices. The first tailor-made sales training program for Shangri-La, developed by Singapore-based TSA (Training Service Asia), the program incorporates the essence of Shangri-La´s corporate culture to make it distinctly relevant.