The Vila Galé hotel group has launched the first of a round of hotel inaugurations expected for 2023, starting with the Monte do Vilar in Beja.
In addition to the four hotels that the Vila Galé will open this year, the chain will manage a new 620-room hotel unit in Cayo Parédon Grand, in Cuba, a country it had ambitions to enter since 2014.
From next year, Vila Galé will take on the management of a second hotel in Cuba, in Havana, in a building which has the highest tower in the city. The hotel will have 594 rooms according to the group’s president, Jorge Rebelo de Almeida, who spoke to ECO online news.
Vila Gale´s entry into Cuba comes after the group had won Cuba’s Gaivota competition — the public tourism company which controls the development of hotels in Cuba – to manage two units. An agreement has already been signed and the hotels are being built by the Cuban State. The Cayo Parédon will be inaugurated in three months.
Jorge Rebelo de Almeida called the projects “challenging but exciting”.
The Monte do Vilar unit is next to the Clube de Campo Vila Galé at Herdade da Figueirinha in Beja where it produces olive oil.
This rural tourism hotel involved an investment of €4 million, although the project suffered a 10% overspend because of inflation.
Other hotels slated to open in 2023 are: Vila Galé Collection São Miguel in Ponta Delgada on the Island of São Miguel, Azores (€14 million); Nep Kids, Beja (€12 million), and Vila Galé Collection, Tomar (€14 million). The projects will employ 170 staff.
Source: Essential Business
