Omar Perez
During the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association's Marketplace tourism conference in Montego Bay earlier this month, Jamaica's tourism minister Edmund Bartlett said Jamaica's room count will increase by 2,000 rooms this year and by 20,000 in five to 10 years, much of it stemming from new projects in or near Montego Bay.
He added that significant amount of that increase will take place along a 6.5-mile stretch that's part of the so-called Rose Hall Corridor between the Iberostar Rose Hall Beach and the Holiday Inn Montego Bay, which is under new ownership and will rebrand soon (see below).
"In this area alone … we will have pretty close to 10,000 rooms," Bartlett said, adding that the corridor will be "the most luxurious and prestigious in [St. James] parish."
Recent openings include November's 352-room Hideaway at Royalton Blue Waters. Not far away in adjacent Trelawny Parish, the 753-room Riu Palace Aquarelle opened this month.
In June, the Princess Grand Jamaica Resort will open an initial 1,000 rooms of a planned 2,000 at a property situated between Montego Bay and Negril. The 450-room Unico Hotel 18*77* Hotel Montego Bay is slated for a summer 2025 opening, and adjacent to the Unico two upscale resorts whose flags Bartlett did not identify will add a combined 1,000 rooms. The under-construction Hard Rock Hotel and Casino will add 1,000 rooms on the southeast corner of the island in St. Thomas Parish, and an upcoming Planet Hollywood Royalton planned for Trelawny will add 650 rooms, Bartlett said.
To handle the certain increase of traffic, a multiphase construction of a Montego Bay perimeter road, which started in 2022, is slated for completion by May 2026.
Just outside of the Rose Hall Corridor but still in Montego Bay, the luxury residential resort Pinnacle, which will comprise four 28-story towers -- one a dedicated hotel -- broke ground in January. It is expected to open in 2028, according to Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner.
In St. Ann Parish, east of Trelawny, Bahia Principe has a $1.5 billion project in the works that will include two hotels as well as a PGA-certified golf course and a fishing village. The Pinero Group, owners of the Spanish hotel chain Bahia Principe, owns the existing Bahia Principe Grand Jamaica, which comprises 1,350 rooms.
The scheduled construction of the Viva Wyndham, near Negril, will add close to 1,000 rooms. New Sandals projects in Port Antonio and Negril will bring some 1,000 rooms combined, and a planned Moon Palace will add 1,250 rooms.
And its not all about newbuilds. The Grand Palladium Jamaica Resort and Spa
is slated to add 900 rooms to its existing inventory of 1,040, as well
as a conference center. The Holiday Inn Montego Bay, which was recently
acquired by Spanish-owned Catalonia Resorts and Hotels,
will add 250 units to its current inventory of 510 as the brand makes
its debut in Jamaica. It will continue to operate as a Holiday
Inn-branded hotel until June 30. Barrett said Catalonia also plans to
build another property in Jamaica.
Many of these projects will each add a varying amount of rooms (the average number being 500) for worker use, while Bartlett said the Jamaican government will construct 4,000 houses in the St. James area primarily for use by hospitality workers.