The figures for tourist arrivals in Belize for this year are already looking good, and while the BTB expects these numbers to continue climbing, today the industry got a major injection of credibility with the addition of a major hotel brand. The Mahogany Bay Resort in South Ambergris Caye had linked up with the Hilton Group of hotels. Now, it’s not a super luxury brand like the Ritz Carlton or the Four Seasons, but Hilton is very major.
And Hilton’s Curio collection is a perfect fit for the 60 acre property of Mahogany Bay and its 205 cottages. Emanuel Pech travelled to San Pedro for the grand unveiling of this partnership:
These colonial style villas are the hallmarks of the Mahogany Bay Village, in San Pedro. It is a project that began a few years ago, through developers Robert Helms and Berth Clifford with the idea to build a Belizean style resort.
Now today as the resort nears completion, the developers are partnering with renowned International hotel brand Hilton.
This hotel will be placed under Hilton’s hotel collection Curio. The announcement was made today inside the main building, which will soon become the lobby for this luxurious resort.
Juan Corvinos- Managing Director Development, C. A. & Carib, Hilton
"This wonderful project will be soon the first Hilton worldwide property in Belize; our entry into the country under the Curio collection by Hilton Flag."
Hilton has over 52 million customers and the idea now is to bring some of that tourism traffic to Belize; certainly something to celebrate.
Hon. Manuel Heredia- Minister of Tourism
"With the sustainable tourism master plan we have been aiming to maintain in a not high rise fashion more boutique type but also being able to blend with one or two international brands and today we have witness the unveiling of Hilton through Curio which will be managing it in this particular Mahogany Bay Resort and I believe that it is something great for Belize today."
Hon. Tracy Taegar-Panton- Minister of State, Investment Trade and Commerce
"The fact that Hilton is here will open up I think many new doors for us in terms of attracting flagship properties to not only invest in Belize and operate in Belize but also to widen the landscape in terms of the market we can tap into. For example this facility will have conference facilities, will be well poised for special events, for meetings and incentives. These are markets that we're now tapping into right now and so it opens a whole new segment of economic activity for Belize and I think it's really a good day."
Juan Corvinos- Managing Director Development, C. A. & Carib, Hilton
"Everybody is going to be very excited about Belize. Some people might have never heard about Belize and they are going to be like we would like to go there, we would like to travel to Belize, we would like to explore it. Now it's up to us as the Belizeans to embrace those tourists like we currently do but in a bigger scale. So we need to be ready to great them, to help them and to just give them an outstanding experience so that they can come back."
Emanuel Pech
"We know Hilton specializes on four, five star hotels, is this the idea for this establishment?"
Juan Corvinos- Managing Director Development, C. A. & Carib, Hilton
"This is will be the luxury resort in Belize as the first hotel in the chain of Belize. We believe that this hotel can be positioned to be the greatest of them all which is outstanding. I'm sure there will be other hotels coming into the market in the near future but as the first international brand in Ambergris Caye; we're going to be able to benefit from showing people what this island is inside Belize and I think that we can we will be positioning this hotel as a four, five star hotel."
Beth Clifford – Developer, Mahogany Bay Village
"We look forward today to the future of this great partnership. A partnership of three, a partnership of the country of Belize, a partnership with Hilton Worldwide and a partnership with Mahogany Bay Village. We thank you and we look forward to the future eagerly."
The resort hopes to be fully opened by next year.
Mahogany Bay goes on to become Hilton's 21st hotel under the Curio- collection.
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