Caribbean's first Waldorf-Astoria hotel to be built in Antigua

The first Waldorf-Astoria in the Caribbean is to be built on the island of Antigua and Barbuda, says that the country’s tourism minister Charles Max Fernandez.

The Waldorf Astoria Collection is a Hilton Worldwide luxury hotel and resort brand. It is positioned as the flagship brand within Hilton's portfolio, being used on hotels which offer the highest standards of facilities and service.

The resort is among an impressive list of 15 new properties that have been approved for construction in the eastern Caribbean country.

The others include Marriott Autograph Collection, Rosewood and a Best Western, The Royalton Antigua, Elegant Hotels’ Hodges Bay Resort and Spa and The Hammock Cove by Elite Island representing 2,535 rooms and units.

By 2021 the new rooms should be part of the country’s hotel inventory, Fernandez told reporters during a product update briefing at the State of the Tourism Industry Conference (SOTIC), now on at the Atlantis, Paradise Island in The Bahamas.

“We are more than doubling our current room stock,” he stated.

Antigua had a record-breaking year in tourism in 2017 and has seen robust growth during the first months of 2018.

“Cruise arrivals are up 17.8 per cent, with 520,465 visitors up to August 2018, and air arrivals are up seven per cent year on year, with 188,974 visitors,” Fernandez said.

The country’s fortunes are predicated on the increase in airlift and the expansion of the cruise market.

According to the tourism minister, a fifth berth is to be built in St. John by mid-2019, which will give the country the capacity to accommodate the world’s largest cruise liner, Oasis Class ships.

New calls are also scheduled from the Ritz Carlton and Virgin cruises.

In 2017, Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, had announced the signing of a management agreement with Callaloo Cay Antigua for the brand’s first new-build resort in the Caribbean, Waldorf Astoria Antigua.

Scheduled to open in 2019, the hotel will be located in a cove along the southeastern coast of Antigua at Morris Bay Beach, roughly 20 minutes from V.C. Bird International Airport.