New Piarco Airport hotel coming

PIARCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT will soon have its own world class hotel. Senior officials at the Airport Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (AATT) yesterday said that the rationale behind inviting proposals to construct a hotel on the grounds of the Piarco Airport estate was to meet the growing international profile of this country as both a tourist and a business destination. The officials said the new hotel will be located one kilometre north of the new airport terminal, will cater to the needs of all travellers and also have specific facilities for business people to conduct their affairs while in TT. The AATT invited requests for proposals from interested and qualified hotel operators to design, develop, construct, finance, furnish, operate and maintain the new airport hotel on December 19.

Interested parties must submit a US$10,000 deposit to receive a request for proposal document for the project. The deposits must be made in the form of a cashier’s cheque made payable to the AATT. The deposits of all unsuccessful proposers will be returned, or applied to the lease deposit of the successful proposer. A mandatory pre-proposal conference and site visit are scheduled for January 10, 2006, and selection of the successful proposer is expected to take place by March 6, 2006. AATT officials declined to say if international resorts were bidding for the project, noting that the process was ongoing and the AATT did not wish to prejudice it in any way. Officials added that the exact scope and cost of the project would be dependent on the contents of the successful proposer’s bid. There are currently 3,000 hotels in 212 cities worldwide, but no such facility exists in the Caribbean. Among the hotels which currently operate airport hotels are the Intercontinental Hotels Group, Holiday Inn, the Marriott and the Hilton.