BARBADOS Hotels and Resorts has launched a new hotel brand.
Called Gems of Barbados, the brand includes four small properties – Blue Horizon, Time Out at the Gap, Worthing Court and the Savannah – with 241 rooms. All were acquired by Hotels and Resorts over the past two-and-a-half years.
A fifth hotel will join the brand on December 15 with the opening of the 70-room all-inclusive Silver Rock, while a sixth property, the 75-room Eastry House, is scheduled to open in 2002.
Hotels and Resorts chief executive Rodney Wilkinson said:”It is easier for small hotels to survive if they brand as a group. Bringing them together also makes it easier to raise finance.”
All the properties have been renovated before being rebranded. Blue Horizon is the last to undergo refurbishment and reopens as a Gems of Barbados hotel on December 15.
Hotels and Resorts has appointed ITG Sales and Marketing Services in the UK to promote the hotels to tour operators and the travel trade in Britain and the Europe.
Gems of Barbados also has a representation company in the US responsible for marketing to the North American market.
“We expect to spend about $1m next year promoting the brand,” Wilkinsons said. “As well as local representation we will attend all the trade shows to get the name across.”
He added: “The target is to have 1,000 rooms in the Gems of Barbados brand by 2005.”