Hotel investment.(DOMINICAN REPUBLIC)

0 Comments | Caribbean Update, January, 2008

HOTEL INVESTMENT. Transat A.T. Inc., owner of Canadian charter carrier Air Transat, will invest US$55 million in a joint venture with Barcelona-based Corporacion H10 Hotels SL to operate five hotels in the DR and Mexico, reports Bloomberg (Nov. 28, 2007). Montreal-based Transat will have a 35% stake in the new venture.

Transat sells almost 900,000 vacation packages a year for travel to the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America and wants to own hotels outright or through partnerships in the "prime destinations" of its charter flights, said CEO Jean-Marc Eustache. The joint venture will operate five beachfront resorts in Punta Cana, DR, and Riviera Maya, Mexico. About 500 of the 1,600 rooms will be allocated to Transat customers, Eustache said.