Announcement of IFC Investment in Pegasus Hotels of Jamaica Limited on October 25, 1968

HOLD FOR RELEASE CORPORATION TELEPHONE: EXECUTIVE 3-6360 IFC News Release No. 68/10 Subject: Pegasus Hotels of Jamaica For Release in Newspapers Limited of Friday, October 25, 1968 NEW JAMAICA PEGASUS HOTEL AIMS FOR BOTH CONVENTION, TOURIST BUSINESS Jamaica is making a determined bid to capture a share of the Caribbean area's convention business with the construction of the new $8.5 million Jamaica Pegasus hotel which will sleep 700 people and accommodate meetings of as many as 1,000. The new 350~room combination convention and tourist hotel is expected to be completed in the first half of 1971. It will be larger than any presently existing hotel on the island and will provide facilities now lacking in Jamaica • for conventions. Xhe project is sponsored by an international investment group. This includes the International Finance Corporation, which is the World Bank affiliate that in- vests in private enterprises in member countries; two affiliates of Barclays Bank Limited; an affiliate of British Overseas Airways Corporation; Forte's (Holdings) Limited, which is a leading British hotel and restaurant organization; and private Jamaican investors. Although the Jamaican tourism industry has grown rapidly in recent years, there has hot been a co:t·responding increase in convention business, largely due to lack of facilities. Business meetings booked for the island generally have been smaller groups. The number of travelers arriving in Jamaica increased an average of 23 per • cent annually between 1960 and 1967, climbing to more than 340,000 last year. This represents, according to Jamaican Tourist Board, about $80 million in business. The Board estimates that the island's convention potential may be equally large. (more) • • - 2 .. Construction of the 700-bed Jamaica Pegasus hotel will begin early next year. The fully airconditioned, eight-story structure situated next to a golf club will have complete convention facilities including a large convention hall and a con- vention type dining room. Also planned are swilillling pool, bars and an open air, roof top restaurant~ The hotel's location near two other existing first class hotels will form, in effect, a convention hotel complex making available comple- mentary accommodation and facilities for very large meetings. The Jamaica Pegasus is indicative of tourism's rise as an i1nportan.t factor in the economies of many countries and of the exte.nsive, organized planning and financ- ing now necessary in the travel industry. The sponsorship of the Jamaica Pegasus including, as it does, a hotel and restaurant operator, a bank, an airline and an internatio~al economic development organization -- reflects the complex require- ~ ments of expanding tourist services under modern conditions. The International Finance Corporation last year participated in a similarly broad group sponsoring a Kenya hotel and game lodges prcject. The Ken~ra and the Jamaica projects reflect IFC's conviction that the tourist industry is an important means for 2c:onom:.c dev~1opment. The JQ!tiaico. Psgasus is expected to be of both short and long t~!'m ecr..,comic benefit to Kingston and the Jamaican economy overall. During construction it will create more than 500 jobs and generate purchases of local raw materials of about $2 million. In operation it will open up some 450 jobs, 95 per cent to be filled by Jamaicans. And it will add an esti:mated $3 million annually to Jamaica's foreign exchange earnings by 1972. BOAC is responsible for overseeing the hotel's design and construction. FHL • will be responsible for management and operation • 4/: