Some 300 participants attended the 14th Caribbean Hotel Investment Conference and Operational Summit (“CHICOS”) held at the Curacao Marriott Beach Resort, Curacao from 9th to 11th November 2025 and continued the hugely successful progress of this leading gathering of players in the resort development and operation of tourism in the Caribbean.
The mood was somewhat reserved noting the flat occupancy, some 16,000 new rooms either under construction or planned to add to the current inventory of 220,000 rooms coupled with rising construction costs which appropriately illustrated the theme of this year’s CHICOS “Navigating the Current of Caribbean Investment”.
BCL’s chairman Martyn Bould has been a speaker at every one of the fourteen events and this year was well supported by BCL’s Managing Director Michell Vargas and senior project lead Patrick Stainton. This year Martyn moderated a panel of experts discussing Mapping Growth: Island Specific and Product Specific Development Trends, which included Bill Clegg, Regional Director Development-BWH Hotels, Amy Ironmonger, Partner-K&L Gates LLP, Darrin Phillips, President – Top Shelf Real Estate, and Gustavo Montealegra , Director of Expansion Dominican Republic and Caribbean-Melia - who took a deep dive into the opportunities and how they either advised clients as to the type of product to choose on which islands or how their brands viewed investment requests to the delight of a most attentive and complimentary audience.
Key challenges were, as always, securing financing, affordable insurance and appropriate airlift. Of note was the interest of family office funding in Caribbean for well-structured projects, often as part of a stack which included the region’s commercial banks, and the floating of an idea to use tokenization as a part of the capital stack, a key being suitable legislation in each jurisdiction. The speed of the impact of Artificial Intelligence featured in many presentations In the luxury sector the inclusion of branded residences as part of the resort mix appears to be a “must have”.
In reviewing island specific opportunities and government offered incentives, coupled with the richness of the Caribbean culture and heritage provided the ideal segway for Martyn to make a pitch to promote his just published autobiography on Amazon covering his past 55 years in the Caribbean entitled “More Than Just the Climb-Life’s Lessons Well Learned”
WELCOME RECEPTION HOSTED BY CINEX, CTB & CHTA AT KONTIKI BEACH
As always CHICOS provided a unique opportunity to gather together in one location highly experienced players in the tourist field from Government, Operators, Investors, Developers, Lenders and Professional Advisors.
HVS PARRIS JORDAN WELCOMES DELEGATES TO CHICOS 2025 IN CURACAO
Contact:
Bernadine Murrain
345 946 6063
Caribbean Very Much "Open for Business" Despite 2017 Devastating Hurricanes Key Topicat Seventh Annual Chicos Conference.
Bould Consulting Limited long association with the British Virgin Islands and our many friends and business colleagues there, enabled a rapid response to assist with the rebuild following the devastation caused by hurricane Irma and Maria in September 2017.
