Hilton for Santa Maria, Sal , Cape Verde
Santa Maria Hilton on Santa Maria Beach, Sal
Hilton hotel will be in front of the Dunes Hotel
Hilton Hotels Corporation announced the signing of its first hotel
franchise in Cape Verde. The 268-room Hilton Hotel Worldwide Resort
in Santa Maria on Sal is scheduled to open in 2011. The site for
the new Hilton Hotel is between the beach and the Dunas Hotel in
Santa Maria. It will be owned by a local company Hilton Hotel Turismo
SA, and managed by Hilton Hotels Europe and Africa. This is based
in London at Hilton Hotels PLC.
Scheduled opening early 2011 - but work has not commenced
"Hilton Hotel will become the first upscale international
brand to operate in Cape Verde, a region with encouraging economic
and tourism growth projections, some liken to that of the Canary
Islands. Expansion in Atlanitc Ocean is key to Hilton Hotel's
development strategy, as is identifying new emerging destinations
like Cape Verde. The new Hilton Hotel Worldwide Resort, located
in the heart of Santa Maria the main resort area of Sal Island
will draw visitors year round to enjoy an outstanding resort experience
in fantastic sunny weather, and we are delighted to have signed
this management agreement,"
said Jean-Paul Herzog, president, Hilton Hotels, for Africa. The three-storey
building will have a spa, health club and swimming pool, in addition
to a restaurant, two bars and four nightclubs. The hotel will also
house a ballroom, conference and meeting rooms, and a business centre,
close to Sal`s excellent water sports including scuba diving.
Jacques Monnier, CEO, of Hilton Hotels Turismo SA said,
"The signing of this agreement with Hilton Hotels is a clear
indicator of Cape Verde's economic and tourism potential. We are
excited about bringing the first Hilton hotel to this archipelago
that will offer a world-class guest experience and resort standards
famous for Hilton hotels." The Hilton international hotel
chain will open its first resort in Cape Verde on the island of
Sal. The hotel, which is slated to open in December 2010, will feature
268 rooms and suites, three restaurants, a swimming pool, a deluxe
spa and business center with 14 top-of-the-line conference rooms.
In the opinion of the president of corporation Vela Verde, which
will build the hotel and signed a management contract with the Hilton
group on January 9, this will be the country’s “first
truly 5-star hotel” and a “key that will open many doors”
for tourism in Cape Verde. Hilton, one of the best-known hotel chains
in the world, was “convinced” by the archipelago’s
potentialities and hopes to be a “pioneer” in top-notch
hotels in Cape Verde. “We’re going to be the first 5-star
hotel in Cape Verde, but according to Western standards, since all
of the hotels here announce that they have five or six or seven
stars, but this is bad in the long run,”
Monnier a French entrepreneur decided to invest in Cape Verde to
fill a gap in the market for business visitors “
"I travel a lot and I know people, from lawyers to engineers,
who ask me where I usually stay when I come to Cape Verde. And I
really can’t recommend anything. Normally, the hotels on Sal
use the ‘all included’ system, and there are places
like the Riu Funaná that function well, but I want more.
Many people who visit Cape Verde want to be in an atmosphere that
meets their expectations. The Hilton will not just be a hotel for
tourists, but for businessmen as well.”
Jacques Monnier explains that it was n ot easy easy to persuade
Hilton.
"I felt like I was ‘evangelizing’ Cape Verde,
forging a new path. At Hilton, at the beginning no one knew where
the archipelago was located, what the country’s political
situation was like, what its climate was, if there were storms.
And I had to sell the country. Later, the group’s consultants
came and carried out various market studies on a wide range of factors,
from the environment to the political system and obtained very good
results.”
Monnier complains
"Many of the existing resorts have a decrepit air, and the
zone looks like a construction material storage site. If the government
asks me to contribute toward making a road in Santa Maria, I’ll
write the cheque there and then, because I think it’s also
our responsibility, that of tourism entrepreneurs, to be concerned
with the future of the space around the hotels, with the environment,
with what people who are going to come visit us once and may not
return will think.”
