Worldwide briefing
Caribbean pair
Hyatt Hotels Corporation will add two new Hyatt Regency Caribbean resorts to its existing four. Work starts this summer on a 200-bedroom property in St Kitts and a 300-bedroom hotel in St Lucia. Both will open in late 1999 or early 2000.
Radisson expands
Radisson Hotels Worldwide took on nine new properties in the last quarter of 1997 in the USA, Finland, Lithuania, Germany and India. The newcomers include the 383-bedroom Radisson Hotel Berkeley Marina in California.
First for Nazareth
Marriott will open its first hotel in Israel this summer after reaching a franchise agreement with HEI Mid-East Hotels. The 258-bedroom Nazareth Marriott Hotel will be the first international-standard hotel in the city.
Building in Manila
Marriott International is to manage a new 430-bedroom property in the Philippines capital, Manila. Construction begins late next year and the hotel will open in 2003 as the JW Marriott Hotel Manila.
Luxury growth
Only four-star hotels in India escaped a decline in occupancy levels in 1996, claims hotel consultant HVS International, although average room rates grew by 15.3%. HVS expects demand for five-star and five-star deluxe rooms in India to grow by 10% per annum.
African promise
More than five million new jobs in Africa could be created through travel and tourism expansion by 2010, the World Economic Forum was told last week.
