A Frida Kahlo boutique hotel in Guadalajara is just one of 29 hotel/resort projects that will be developed in Jalisco over the next five years, according to the state Tourism Department. In all, investment is expected to reach around 27 billion pesos (2.1 billion dollars).
An explosion of development is anticipated in the Costalegre region on the southern coastline, where 18 projects are planned, including hotels, a golf resort, marina, spa and time-share complexes. Five hotels are also going up Puerto Vallarta, two of them in close proximity to the airport. Slated for completion at the end of 2014 is the Hotel Now, part of the Apple Leisure Group, one of the largest wholesale vacation providers in the United States. The hotel will cost 100 million dollars, have 450 rooms, seven restaurants and a spa.
Both the NH and Hyatt groups are planning to build new hotels in the Guadalajara metropolitan area, tourism officials say.
The first of this new swath of Jalisco hotels will open at the end of 2013: the five-star, 95-room Hotel Las Casonas in the center of Tequila, operated by the Camino Real group. The hotel is expected to work closely with Tequila Cuervo and offer overnight stays for tourists taking the Cuervo Express train from Guadalajara. The total investment in the hotel is around 15 million dollars.
This week, the round tower building at one end of Guadalajara’s Plaza del Sol reopened as a plush new Hotel Arriva Express, a business oriented hotel with 166 rooms and seven event salons. The hotel is offering a 30-percent discount during an inaugural period.