A senior official of Marriott International says that St. Vincent is “one of the most beautiful and unique Caribbean islands” and the state-owned hotel that the company will manage at Mt Wynne is an important project for the country.
Bojan Kumer, Marriott International’s vice president for hotel development — Caribbean and Latin America, told a signing ceremony at the Mt Wynne, on Tuesday, that the St. Vincent Marriot will be the “the first internationally-branded, first class hotel on the mainland”.
The government has borrowed US$50 million to build the 250-room hotel, construction of which is expected to begin this year and continue through 2022.
Marriott will manage the hotel under their brand name and Minister of Finance, Camillo Gonsalves told the ceremony that the management contract is “something in which they are coming in to lend us their experience, to lend their talent, to lend their expertise to the running of the facility”.
We are very excited about this project and about our partnership with the government of St. Vincent via the National Properties Ltd – said Kumer
He noted that the hotel will also have several restaurants, bars, swimming pools, tennis courts and first class meeting facilities.
“This hotel should set, actually, the new standard for all future developments in St. Vincent and our goal is to be mindful of the sustainability and the opportunity to obtain the LEED certification upon the completion of this project.”
Kumer said SVG, with its natural beautify, is the perfect place for a new Marriott and a great new location to offer to their 140 million Bonvoy loyalty reward members.
“When this hotel opens, we will operate in more than 140 countries in the world and we will employ approximately one million employees in all of our franchised and managed properties,” he said.
“This hotel will employ approximately 250 to 300 employees and these employees will actually have the opportunity to work for the largest hotel chain in the world and will have a tremendous opportunity to grow their professional careers and travel the world.
“We are looking forward to see this hotel open its doors and welcome the first guest in a couple of years,” Kumer said.
