14174: Florestal: Herald - Hilton Hotel in Haiti by 2005 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Jean-Marie Florestal <sonice1953@yahoo.com>

Business

Posted on Fri, Dec. 20, 2002 story:PUB_DESC

Betting on its brand name, Hilton sees a future in
Haiti
Poor economy, protests fail to dim chain's vision
BY MARIKA LYNCH
mlynch@herald.com

HIGH HOPES: The walls are to be 15 feet tall in the
planned Hilton D'Haiti in Port-au-Prince. The
196-unit, $52.5 million complex is shooting for a 2005
opening. PATRICK FARRELL / Herald Staff
More photos
HIGH HOPES: The walls are to be 15 feet tall in the
planned Hilton D'Haiti in Port-au-Prince. The
196-unit, $52.5 million complex is shooting for a 2005
opening. PATRICK FARRELL / Herald Staff

Haiti's economy is contracting, street protests are
routine, and the U.S. State Department has all but
suggested that visitors stay away.

Yet Hilton sees an opportunity for business in
Port-au-Prince.

Early next year, across the street from the capital's
airport, investors will officially break ground on a
196-unit hotel that would be the Caribbean nation's
largest.

The Hilton D'Haiti hopes to attract business people
seeking to slip into the country and avoid the trek --
and the safety risks -- of heading downtown. Travelers
will be able to rent an extended-stay apartment and
office space as well as shop and eat at three
restaurants, all without stepping outside the hotel's
15-foot-high wall.

''A lot of people who don't stay overnight now or who
don't go to Haiti at all because there's not a branded
hotel will find a sense of security and familiarity
with a brand like Hilton,'' said Bruce Baxter,
president of the Coral Gables-based InnVest Inc., the
project's consultant.

Though Hilton will manage the hotel, the $52.5 million
complex is being built by Harding Enterprises of
Louisville, Ky., which owns the Haitian cigarette
company Comme Il Faut and a food-distributorship
business. The two businesses are located close to the
airport, an area that is evolving as an industrial
hub.

Investors say a Hilton will attract new businesses to
Haiti. They also hope that the political turmoil --
protests have grown in recent weeks as the government
and opposition leaders remain deadlocked over disputed
2000 elections -- will have cooled by the time of the
hotel's scheduled opening in 2005.

Hilton D'Haiti will be the country's only
international-brand hotel. Haiti's Club Med closed,
and Holiday Inn pulled its name off a downtown hotel a
few years ago. Currently, business travelers tend to
stay in one of four upscale hotels that have a total
of 374 rooms, according to an industry index. The
Hilton will add 50 percent more rooms.

The heyday of Haitian tourism came in the 1970s, when
foreigners toured art galleries and sampled the local
cuisine. Now, most tourists are business people,
missionaries or aid workers.

And while 141,000 people visited Haiti last year,
according to the Caribbean Tourism Organization, only
about a third stayed in hotels. Occupancy nationwide
varies from 30 percent to 50 percent, said Elisabeth
Silvera Ducasse, president of the Haitian Tourism
Association.

Despite that, word of the Hilton project has been
received well by business leaders and even by local
hoteliers, said Ducasse, who is also managing director
of the family-owned El Rancho hotel in the suburb of
Petionville.

''I remember,'' she said, 'my father always telling
us: `If new companies come into Haiti with names that
are known all over the world, it will attract more
people to come here.' ''

Her only worry, Ducasse said, is that if the Hilton
fails to draw travelers, it might have to lower prices
below local market value, which in turn might drain
business from her and other locally owned hotels.

The 27-acre Hilton complex was designed by OBM
International, a Coral Gables-based firm that has been
involved in projects around the Caribbean and done
consulting work for the Village of Key Biscayne.

''The biggest challenge it has to face is Haiti's
international reputation,'' said John Bell, director
general and chief executive of the Caribbean Hotel
Association, which is based in Puerto Rico. ``One has
to hope and believe this current trauma the country is
going through has to have an end.''
 email this |  print this | license this | reprint
this


__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com