PHOTO: Governor General of Antigua and Barbuda Sir Rodney Williams, Minister of tourism Asot Michael and other Antigua and Barbuda officials and investors break ground on the Coconut Beach Marriott. (Photo courtesy of Antigua & Barbuda Tourism Authority).

Marriott International broke ground this month on a $40 million Antigua resort for the company’s Autograph Collection. The Coconut Beach Resort by Marriott will feature 70 rooms incorporating “modern water features” and other eco-friendly amenities said company officials following a Nov. 29 groundbreaking ceremony attended by Gaston Browne, Antigua & Barbuda’s prime minister.  

Located on the site of the former Coconut Beach Club, which closed in 2015, the newly built resort will feature a design intended to appeal to “top-end” leisure and business travelers and offer an array of upscale services and amenities.

“Being able to participate in the ground-breaking of new properties and developments that will lead to increasing room availability and broadening our twin-island nation’s portfolio of distinguished properties is of utmost distinction and importance,” said Browne.

“We are confident that having the Marriott name and respect of brand as part of our portfolio will lead to increased airlift, in particular from the US market as this is a draw for US carriers,” said Asot Michael, Antigua & Barbuda’s tourism minister.

“We are excited to bring the brand to the island and be part of its continued growth as a tourism destination,” said Bojan Kumer, Marriott’s director of development for the Caribbean and Latin America.

The new development will add new capacity in Antigua and Barbuda as the Caribbean nation experiences a tourism surge. Arrivals increased significantly in the first half of 2016 with 170,108 overnight visitors between January and July according to Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) data, a 9.9 percent year-over-year increase.

Earlier this year tourism officials cited the 2015 launch of new Jet Blue Airways flight to Antigua from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport as a catalyst for the country’s visitor surge.  Antigua’s government and the Antigua& Barbuda Tourism Authority also opened a new 247,569-square-foot terminal at V.C. Bird International Airport in 2015.

The island’s government is also partnering with Academy Award-winning actor Robert DeNiro to open Paradise Found, a $250 million, 391-acre resort development on the site of Barbuda’s former K Club resort.

Antigua is coming off a 2015 season marked by lagging visitor arrivals. Overnight arrivals between January and November (the latest period for which Caribbean Tourism Organization data is available) totaled 222,123, a 0.5 percent decline from 2014. 

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