Business View Caribbean October/November 2018

6 7 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 Opening Lines FIRST WALDORF-ASTORIA IN THE CARIBBEAN - ONE OF 15 NEW HOTELS APPROVED IN ANTIGUA-BARBUDA T he first Waldorf-Astoria in the Carib- bean is to be located in Antigua, and is one of 15 newhotels that have been approved for construction inAntigua and Barbuda,TourismMinister,Charles ‘Max’Fernandez told reporters during a product update briefing at the State of the Tourism Industry Conference (SOTIC) in The Baha- mas. The Waldorf Astoria Collection is a Hilton Worldwide luxury hotel and resort brand and is the flagship brand within Hilton’s portfolio for hotels that offer the highest standards of facilities and service. Scheduled to open in 2019, the Waldorf Astoria Antigua will be located in a cove along the southeast- ern coast of Antigua at Morris Bay Beach, roughly 20 minutes fromV.C. Bird International Airport. The other approved properties include Marriott Autograph Collection, Rosewood, a Best Western,the RoyaltonAntigua,Elegant Hotels’ Hodges BayResort and Spa,andTheHammock Cove byElite Island,representing 2,535 rooms and units. The award-winning, eco-friendlyBarbuda Belle will also reopen onNovember 1.The sixbungalow hotel,whichwas one of the signa- ture properties on Barbuda,will be the first hotel to reopen since the islandwas devastated byHurricane Irma in September 2017. By2021,the newrooms should be part of the country’s hotel in- ventory,Fernandez said,“…more than doubling our current roomstock”.Antigua had a record-break- ing year in tourism in 2017and has seen robust growth during the first months of 2018.“Cruise arrivals are up 17.8 percent, with 520,465 visitors up to August 2018, and air arrivals are up seven percent year on year, with 188,974 visitors,” Fernandez said.