Playa Hotels & Resorts’ stunning purchase of five upscale resorts in the booming Jamaican tourism district extending from Montego Bay to Ocho Rios positions the hospitality firm as a major Jamaican resort player, just as Jamaica enjoys an unprecedented increase in visitor arrivals.

Playa this week acquired five all-inclusive resorts and two adjacent, developable oceanfront sites on Jamaica’s North Coast. The acquisition includes the 489-room Hilton Rose Hall resort, the 268-room Jewel Runaway Bay resort, the 250-room Jewel Dunn’s River resort and the 225-room Jewel Paradise Cove, all located along the corridor that connects Jamaica’s two largest resort towns, Montego Bay and Ocho Rios.

The agreement also includes the Jamaica Grande Palmyra, an 88-room hotel tower and spa, plus two developable land sites with a “potential density of up to 700 rooms,” said Playa officials. The company will manage the Jewel Grande Palmyra under terms of the agreement.

In exchange, Jewel owner Sagicor will receive 20 million shares of Playa common stock (listed under “PLYA” on the Nasdaq exchange) and $100 million in cash. Playa will nominate two Sagicor appointees for election to Playa’s board of directors upon the transaction’s consummation, said officials in a statement.

Playa currently owns and operates the Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall and Hyatt Ziva Rose Hall resorts in Montego Bay. This new combination with Sagicor places Playa among Jamaica’s largest resort owners and operators in the total number of rooms and number of brands under management.

“Playa’s development track record, management expertise, strong regional presence and deep customer relationships will contribute significantly to improving the Sagicor portfolio performance,” said Bruce Wardinski, Playa Hotels & Resorts’ chairman and CEO.

“This gives us over 2,000 hotel rooms in Jamaica, with a major footprint in Montego Bay, and the Runaway Bay region, all the way up to Dunn’s River and Ocho Rios,” said Kevin Froemming, Playa’s chief marketing officer and executive vice president. “For us this is a brilliant opportunity and we are really excited.”

Froemming said the agreement presents numerous opportunities for Playa to utilize the Hilton, Jewel and its own newly created Panama Jack hospitality brands to offer travelers upscale resort experiences across several categories.

“We will retain the Hilton logo on the Hilton Rose Hall, so now we have a relationship with Hilton as well,” he said. “We are looking at a Panama Jack re-brand for some of [the properties] toward the end of the year,” he continued.

Froemming added, “We are going to be spending $20 to $30 million [on] upgrading and modernizing the resorts. We think that at least one if not two of the Jewel resorts would fit very well in the Panama Jack portfolio. It would bring our Panama Jack brand into Jamaica as well. We think the Jewel Grande Palmyra will probably stay within the Jewel brand.”

The agreement also positions Playa to add additional resort capacity and consolidate its control of a massive stretch of the beach running from Montego Bay through the Runaway Bay region into Ocho Rios.

“The two parcels of land that came along with this transaction; one is adjacent to the Hyatt Ziva, and the plan there is to potentially expand the Hyatt Ziva on that land,” Froemming said.

“That connects to the Jewel Grande, so we control that beachfront from where the Hyatt Ziva/Hyatt Zilara starts to where the Ziva ends. It gives us a major ability to create opportunities with lots of operational synergies,” he said. “The Hilton is literally only three lots down from that.

“We also have a beautiful stretch of beach [adjacent to the Jewel Grande Palmyra], which is the second parcel of land and potentially allows us to expand by putting another 350 rooms on that land as well. We don’t know what we’re going to do there yet but there are lots of options. Without question it is the largest footprint in Montego Bay.”

Froemming said Jamaica’s recent struggle with security issues hasn’t altered the company’s long-term view of the destination. Despite a recent state of emergency, Jamaica posted its best-ever tourism numbers in 2017 (4.3 million visitors including 2,353,461 land-based, overnight guests and 1,946,780 cruise ship arrivals).

The total marked the first time Jamaica has hosted as many as four million travelers in one year, said Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica’s minister of tourism, and represents a 12.1 percent year-over-year vault over Jamaica’s 2016 arrivals, doubling JTB’s initial forecast. Jamaica’s surging arrivals have continued in 2018.

“I think the landscape for Jamaica continues to be extremely positive. Jamaica continues to be one of the best, most stable destinations for running an all-inclusive product,” said Froemming. “The reason I say that is you’ve had a very stable government over the years, a tourism-oriented government that knows how to work with developers and know how to treat tourism.”

He added, “The people of Jamaica are the best in the world in terms of servicing guests; it is the premier destination in the English-speaking Caribbean. It is very low cost relative to other Caribbean destinations. So what it says to us is clearly with what is happening today you have some short term disruptions, but long term the landscape continues to be extremely positive.”

The agreement was welcomed by Sagicor executives, Jamaican tourism officials and travel sellers. “This business combination will be a great benefit to the country of Jamaica, and represents a unique opportunity for growth and development for the people of Jamaica and the tourism sector,” said Richard Byles, Sagicor’s chairman and a nominee for election to Playa’s board.

“It will also create exceptional financial opportunities for Playa taking advantage of Jamaica’s combined attributes of tropical climate, attractive beachfronts, culture, airlift, proximity to US markets, high stabilized occupancy levels vs other Caribbean destinations, and supportive government agencies,” he added.

In a Jamaica Observer interview, Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica’s tourism minister characterized the deal as “an expansion of the industry which will positively impact our economy by way of more rooms, more jobs and more arrivals.”

“This acquisition is a win-win for Jamaica tourism and for the travel agent community,” said Joel Schlotz, a luxury specialist and Certified Travel Advisor for Cruise Planners.

“I have never had a bad experience booking clients in any of the Playa Resorts and whenever they take over a property they renovate it to the utmost standards. I book families, couples, honeymooners and destination weddings at Playa Resorts,” Scholtz said. “Jamaica continues to be one of my favorite places in the Caribbean and the same goes for my clients. Jamaica tourism will continue to grow with this amazing news.