25 years in, RIU signals expansion on Jamaica investment

MONTEGO BAY, St James — As RIU Hotels & Resorts prepares to celebrate 25 years of operations in Jamaica next month, the Spanish hotel chain has signalled even deeper investment in the destination.

After pouring US$287 million into the construction of RIU Palace Aquarelle and major property upgrades over the last five years, RIU Palace Jamaica is set to close at the end of August, ahead of a planned December 12 reopening.

Twenty-fifth anniversary celebrations will take place at RIU Montego Bay on Thursday, June 18.

Speaking last Friday during a press conference in Montego Bay to provide details of the hotel’s silver jubilee celebrations in Jamaica, Regional Director of Operations Frank Sondern underscored that the company’s programme of “beautiful refurbishments” will continue.

“Accumulated for the previous five years, [there was] US$287 million in refurbishment… and that’s something that I am going to advance already this year. We have another refurbishment coming up this year,” Sondern announced.

He said the work will include a total renovation of the rooms and the general area while the common areas will be refurbished.

“We will change some of the restaurants, have a beautiful steakhouse in addition to the restaurants that we have already, and other perks,” Sondern added.

Director of Sales, RIU Resorts Jamaica Niurka Garcia Linton stressed that the investments over the years demonstrate the hotel’s long-standing commitment to the destination.

“We’ve been here for 25 years, but also the message is: ‘We are here to stay. We are planted here. We are part of the destination.’ These numbers simply are to show that our commitment is that of 100 per cent,” Garcia Linton said.

“We only share this information so that you can know, without any doubt, that our commitment to Jamaica is very serious,” she added.

She emphasised that RIU does “not do a simple renovation but a full rebuild”.

“One of the things that I really want to highlight about our brand that makes it, for me as head of commercial in the destination, very easy to sell is that every time that we do a renovation we actually stop calling them renovations. We are actually moving to the term rebuild, because whenever the company takes a hotel from us to do a rebuild, when they give it back to us, it’s a completely new product, so we consider that it is really not a renovation. Renovation is when you make some changes. What we do is basically we gut it out, and when they give us back, it’s a new hotel,” Garcia Linton explained.

“So we have changed the term, and whenever we talk about updates we’re going to be calling it rebuild, and Palace Tropical Bay is a testimony of that change,” she added.

She pointed to work done at RIU Negril, which opened in 2004 and was last renovated in December 2024.

According to Garcia Linton, the expansion reflects a steady growth trajectory since 2001 when the brand entered Jamaica after its founder, Luis Riu, fell in love with Negril. The fascination with the country has continued, as evidence by the building out of more than 4,000 rooms across the north coast while generating significant employment across its properties. There has been the addition of flagship properties including the 901-room RIU Ocho Rios, RIU Montego Bay — now a top-ranked adults-only resort — RIU Palace Jamaica in 2013, RIU Reggae in 2016, and most recently RIU Palace Aquarelle in May 2024.

“In Jamaica we have 4,274 rooms, against four different resort areas: Negril, Montego Bay, Falmouth, and Ocho Rios. In total, we have over 8,000 beds. In terms of employees, we have close to 4,000 employees, and we are really proud to say that over 99 per cent of our staff is Jamaican,” Garcia Linton said.

To mark the upcoming milestone, she said the company will roll out an extensive slate of activities, including digital campaigns under the hashtag “25 Years RIU in Jamaica” and expanded social responsibility initiatives, blending commercial engagement with community outreach as it celebrates a quarter century on the island.

RIU Resorts Jamaica Director of Sales Niurka Garcia Linton speaking during a press conference at RIU Montego Bay last Friday. (Photos: Philp Lemonte)

RIU’s Regional Director of Operations Frank Sondern speaking during last Friday’s press conference at RIU Montego Bay.