Grenada Today - July 31st, 2004

Best Western International Inc., the world's largest hotel chain, will be adding Grenada to its expanding list of locations in over 80 countries and territories worldwide.

This was disclosed Monday at a press conference held by the Executive Chairman of Capital Bank International Ltd, Finton DeBourg and attended by Minister of Tourism, Brenda Hood.

DeBourg said that the hotel chain will be opening in the newly built South City Plaza, the island's first multi-use leisure complex.

According to DeBourg, although the facility is still to be open there is already great interest being shown in South City Plaza by a number of local and regional retailers.

This, he sees as "a very positive step in fulfilling the goal of providing a more diverse combination of strong, quality products and services and to give Grenadians more choice"

With over 50 years of experience, Best Western International has grown to become the largest hotel company operating under a single brand name with more than 4,000 independently owned and operated hotels throughout North, Central and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East and South Pacific.

Best Western International Inc. was one of the first hotel brands to provide direct Internet booking to their clients worldwide when this service was introduced in 1995.

The company is represented in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Orlando, Paris, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington, D.C.

The hotel will enjoy a commanding position on the top floor of the EC$20 million South City Plaza, located in the Grand Anse area.
The Plaza is due to be completed in November 2004.

As well as the Hotel, South City Plaza offers spacious, comfortable air-conditioned duty free retail outlets; executive office space; gym and conference facilities; a food court; and the International banking facilities provided by the Capital Bank International headquarters.

Minister Hood welcomed the arrival of Best Western International as a strong indication of commitment and confidence in the exciting new South City Plaza.

He was confident that the company's excellent reputation for technical support and training would be of great benefit to increasing the professionalism and quality of service that Grenada has to offer.

The female government minister said that the ruling New National Party (NNP) administration would do all in its powers to support initiatives such as this and to ensure that the island could provide the best and most skilled service not only in the Caribbean, but internationally.

She applauded the fact that this was a local initiative and that she was proud to see Grenadians making such investments and looked forward to seeing further new projects adding to Grenada's sustainable tourism for the future.