“Our investment climate is positive,” Bartlett, the tourism minister, said in his presentation to the Sectoral Debate in Parliament on Tuesday.
The goal, he added, “to dramatically increase the number of hotel rooms is still on track, and I can safely say that many of the planned investments are still on target”.
He identified the investors as Jamaican company Sandals Resorts International, Princess Hotels and Resorts from Spain, a North American RCD Resorts and Hard Rock International collaboration, the multinational Secrets Resorts, and Spanish-owned powerhouse H10 Hotels.
The developments, he said, will result in approximately 7,000 new rooms and in excess of 20,000 new part-time and full-time jobs.
The projects include Princess Hotels & Resorts’ 2,000 rooms and Casino for Green Island, Hanover; RCD Resorts and Hard Rock International’s multifaceted development which is likely to have three separate hotels along the Elegant corridor in St James, numbering in the region of 1,600 rooms; Secrets’ brand new hotel in St Ann with just over 700 rooms and another new hotel alongside Secrets in St James with 280 rooms; Oceans by H10 which is in the final months of construction of 444 new suites at its Trelawny property; Sandals Resorts International’s acquisition of three properties last year which will be transformed into upscale resorts, namely, Sandals Dunn’s River, Sandals Royal Dunn’s River, and Beaches Runaway Bay, totalling approximately 950 rooms.
The tourism minister also said that Kingston is looking forward to the completion of the 168-room contemporary ROK Hotel on downtown Kingston’s waterfront, the Wyndham Kingston development in New Kingston, and a mixed-purpose high-rise luxury condo development at Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel.