Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer
Stewart
WESTERN BUREAU:
Adam Stewart, Sandals Resorts International director of resort products, says that while other hotels are fighting for 'cookie-cutter' prices, his organisation will push the island's accommodation sector to six-star levels, catering to the rich and famous.
His statement follows an announcement by his father, hotel mogul Gordon 'Butch' Stewart, that another high-end Royal Plantation product will be added to the Jamaican tourist industry within nine months.
Mr. Stewart made the disclosure to journalists at the Rotary Club of Montego Bay East Banquet at the Rose Hall Resort and Country Club on Saturday night.
The new Royal Plan-tation will be a 250-room Condotel European Plan (EP), three, four- and five-bedroom resort. It is scheduled for construction late next year on the Bloody Bay property in Negril, Westmoreland, next door to the Spanish-owned Riu Club Hotel.
New
ground
The condotel (a condo-minium hotel facility that is sold to individual buyers who typically continue renting them to vaca-tioners) is the Jamai-can chain's first attempt at this type of non-all-inclusive niche market.
The group currently operates 22 resorts worldwide, with one Royal Plantation in Ocho Rios as part of its set-up. Earlier this year the hotel mogul announced another Royal Plantation scheduled to be built in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands, by mid-2007.
"The resort will add yet another dimension to the diverse Negril product range; many of the small, successful EP resorts of Jamaica are located in Negril," said Evelyn Smith, area chairman of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association.
She said the opening of a Royal Plantation in the town would further enhance the resort's luxury high-end products, which are few.
