Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer

Luis Riu, president of the Riu Group of hotels. - photo by Janet Silvera

The Riu Group of Spain is awaiting permission from National Planning and Environment Agency to launch a 250-room hotel project, which the company's president, Luis Riu, said is to sit adjacent to the property in the final stages of construction at Mahoe Bay in Montego Bay.

The latter property, a 701-room development, is four months to completion, and will hit the market August 29, said Riu.

He told Wednesday Business that the doors to his properties were always thrown open for business on a Friday.

His office said later that it had become a family tradition.

Extensive travel

"He is travelling so much that one of his rules is to spend the weekends with his family," said his spokeswoman, Claudia Schunk.

"Therefore, he is always leaving on a Friday morning. That permits him to arrive Friday evening at home and dedicate the whole weekend to his wife and three children."

The Riu Group began operating in Jamaica eight years ago, opening its first property in Negril.

Riu Montego Bay - the hotel group's fourth hotel representing an investment of US$125 million, including the cost of land - will place its inventory of rooms in Jamaica at 2,600.

Total investment made in those rooms, said Riu, is US$400 million, or under US$154,000 per room.

The 250-room property on the drawing board is planned for 2010 or 2011.

The Riu Group, whose portfolio of hotels is edging close to the 100 mark, had euro1.1 billion of turnover in 2007, and employs 20,000.

It is the forerunner among the Spanish hotel chains that have sailed into the Caribbean in search of new business, bringing competition for small hotels as well as the all-inclusive brands.

Riu said even he was surprised at the success of the Jamaican market, where he has three hotels, two in Negril and one in Ocho Rios. The property in Montego Bay is to be the second largest, behind the 800-plus hotel in Ocho Rios.

"Twenty years ago, Jamaica was an excellent brand on the market, but lost that image because of its many problems, so when we told our European tour operators that we were investing in Jamaica, they said we were crazy," he told Wednesday Business.

As a result, when his first hotel got off the ground, he was only able to entice tour operators to funnel one flight per week from Europe.

"We now have five flights per week during the summer and two per week during winter," Riu said.

Accordingly, he said, Jamaica is now a stronger brand in Belgium, Germany and Spain. "We have brought a new face to the impression that people had of Jamaica," he added.

Revenue

Just about 70 per cent of Riu's revenue comes from Latin America and the Caribbean, said the company president. Mexico, where the five-star, all-inclusive Riu Palace Pacific in Riviera Nayarit (Puerto Vallarta) was recently opened, is the chain's No 1 regional market.

Riu is looking next to conquer the rising continent, Asia.

"A company our size, we absolutely must go there," said Jos Graven, director of development and asset management.

Worldwide, Riu has 20,000 employees on its payroll, 1,200 of them in Jamaica. The 701-room MoBay property will add another 500 jobs.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com