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The Spanish hotel chain, RIU Hotels & Resorts is celebrating 20 years in Jamaica.

In 2001, RIU chain opened its first hotel in the country, the Riu Palace Tropical Bay in Negril. From that moment, RIU’s commitment to Jamaica has not stopped or waned, growing to six hotels in three different parts of the island.

Three resorts are located in the Jamaican tourist capital of Montego Bay, two in Negril and one in Ocho Rios. The principals of RIU have restated that their commitment to the island, which they say is manifested by the renovation and refurbishment works that have been taking place across their chain of hotels operating in Jamaica.

Today’s RIU’s entire hotel portfolio there is either newly built or totally renovated. When the Riu Palace Tropical Bay opened in 2001, RIU became the first Spanish chain to decide to commit to Jamaica as a destination in which to develop its operations.  Since them other Spanish hoteliers have stamped their presence in Jamaica.

Personal commitment to come to Jamaica

The challenge of taking RIU’s business to Jamaica was a personal commitment by Luis Riu, the chain’s CEO. Riu reported that, “since my first visit to the island in 1998, I knew I had to open a RIU hotel in Jamaica. I was entranced by its beaches and nature, but above all by the culture and the charisma of its people, and I knew our clients would feel its charm too. At that time, it seemed crazy, but today it’s a success story.”

He remarked that Jamaica is one of the Caribbean’s major destinations, not only for American tourists, but rather for almost all the European countries. The launch of the Riu Palace Tropical Bay was followed a year later by Riu Negril.

After that, RIU carried on investing in other regions in the country, and opened Riu Ocho Rios in 2005. Two years later, in 2007, came the opening of Riu Montego Bay, its first hotel in that part of the country.

Over the years, and including the recent renovation of Riu Montego Bay in December 2020. This growth and RIU’s commitment to Jamaica have allowed the chain to create more than 1,500 jobs in the country between its six operational hotels, and those members of staff still include some of those who started weaving RIU’s history in 2001 in Jamaica.

The performance of each and every one of them has been deeply appreciated by RIU’s customers in Jamaica, and for that reason the chain’s hotels have received prestigious awards from German tour operator TUI and American tour operator Apple Vacations, such as the Golden Apple Award and the Crystal Apple Award, based on the opinions of hundreds of thousands of travellers who evaluate and score the staff, service, food quality, facilities, beaches and activity programmes.

Closure due to COVID-19

At present, RIU Hotels has more than 3,300 rooms and more than 6,700 beds in the country. Due to the pandemic, RIU had to close its hotels in March 2020, but a few months later it was able to return to action.

The first to reopen its doors was Riu Ocho Rios in June, and now the Riu Palace Jamaica and Riu Montego Bay are also in operation, all implementing the protocols set out in the RIU Hotels Post-COVID Manual. The international RIU chain was founded in Mallorca by the Riu family in 1953 as a small holiday firm and is still owned by the family’s third generation.

The company specialises in holiday resorts and over 70% of its establishments offer its acclaimed All Inclusive by RIU service. RIU Hotels & Resorts now has 93 hotels in 19 countries which welcome over 4,5 million guests a year and provide jobs for a total of 29,985 employees.

RIU is currently the world’s 35th ranked chain, one of the Caribbean’s most popular, the fourth-largest in Spain in terms of revenue and in number of rooms.