BCQS attends CHICOS 2015 in San Juan, Puerto Rico

12 Nov BCQS attends CHICOS 2015 in San Juan, Puerto Rico

BCQS International directors, Liam Day, Ben Butler and Simon Taylor recently attended the 5th Edition Caribbean Hotel Investment Conference & Operations Summit (CHICOS), held at the Ritz-Carlton San Juan in Puerto Rico on 12th and 13th November.

The Caribbean Hotel Investment Conference & Operations Summit (CHICOS) is the region’s must attend hospitality and tourism investment conference. CHICOS is organised by HVS and co-hosted by a partnership with the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) and the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO).

This event has proven itself as the premier hospitality conference in the region. In its 5th year, this event brought together more than 300 regional and international investors and operators as well as the region’s leading decision makers. Speakers included governmental representatives, opinion leaders, developers, bankers and other lenders, tourism officials, investment funds, hotel chain executives, individuals/companies seeking investors for their tourism projects, franchise and operations companies, public and private institutions, consultants, advisors and architects and designers – all to discuss the region’s markets and possibilities.

Liam Day, BCQS Managing Director, moderated a lively panel discussion entitled ‘Caribbean Hotel Developers’. The panel included some of the region’s top developers that have developed hotels in multiple jurisdictions or developed multiple hotels in one jurisdiction. Panelists shared invaluable experience of the key factors driving the potential success or failure of a development, including due diligence, project team selection, government relationships & incentives, differing legal frameworks, local partners, procurement routes, the capital stack, brand selection & negotiation and how to manage the risk associated with all of the above to avoid the usual pitfalls and optimise budget, quality and time objectives from inception through completion.

Speaking about the conference Liam Day commented, “This is the fifth CHICOS event we have attended and the third that we have sponsored. It’s fair to say the general vibe of the conference was definitely more upbeat than previous years, largely due to the improved performance of the Caribbean hospitality sector in 2015. We continue to see improvements in ADR, Occupancy and RevPar, which intern drives demand for new inventory and all indications are that year on year increases should continue for the next three to four years, which bodes well for the sector as a whole.”