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Coco Beach Golf and Country Club to Host Annual PGA Tour Event
A three year contract has just been signed between the owners of Coco Beach Golf and Country Club and the PGA as well as the Puerto Rico Golf Foundation to bring an annual event to that facility. This three year contract has prompted the golf club owners to increase the course length in order to comply with PGA Tour requirements, and in addition, they’ve brought sand in from Florida in order to create additional sand traps. $1.6 million will be spent to bring the course to PGA standards report Caribbean Business in their February 1 issue.
Coco Beach is the official golf course for the Paradisus Puerto Rico Resort – becoming the Gran Melia shortly.
New Municipal and State Sales Taxes Established
Until last November Puerto Rico had no sales tax, but now that is a thing of the past. The municipality of San Juan has levied a 1% sales tax, the municipalities of Rio Grande and Fajardo (Westin, Paradisus and Conquistador locations) is charging 1.5% and the Commonwealth Government has levied a 5.5% tax. These new taxes do not apply to Business to Business sale of services, but do apply to consumer sales (cash tour sales from a hospitality desk, for instance) as well as to the sale of Food and Beverage. In this last case, our supplier levies the tax on us and the rate we quote the client has that same tax already bundled in – we don’t layer an additional tax on top of the price we pay.
In addition, in a move fought bitterly by the Puerto Rico Hotel and Tourism Association, the municipality of San Juan has levied a head tax on hotel stays: $2.00 per person per night in hotels up to 25 rooms, $3.00 per person per night for hotels with 26 to 75 rooms, and $5.00 per person per night for stays in hotel with over 76 rooms. This tax is in addition to the 11 or 9 % hotel tax that applies to stays in hotels with and without casinos, respectively. The Hotel Association is in the process of suing the Municipality of San Juan in order to have the head tax revoked and several of the local hotels are refusing to pay it and instead are depositing the funds collected into an escrow account. Stay tuned for further word.
Hotel and Tourism Association Elects Joanne Ferguson to its Board of Directors
At the annual meeting of the Puerto Rico Hotel and Tourism Association held last September Joanne Fer-guson, this firm’s Executive V.P., was elected to the Board of Directors of the PRH&TA, filling the seat her father, Paul Ferguson, had occupied continuously since 1975. Paul continues at the Association on the Executive Committee and heads up the Governance Committee as well.
Jet-ski and Hobie Cat Fun
One of our house accounts (an incentive house) recently challenged us to come up with a Jet-ski and Hobie Cat afternoon of fun as one of the options on an afternoon of activity offers for his group. We located an outstanding water-sports firm that operates off the beach that serves the Inter-Continental, the El San Juan, and the Ritz Carlton. Pricing was reasonable, and performance met our high standards – so feel free to request this for any groups you have that will he staying at one of those three properties.
Sol Meliá to Construct New Hotel in Old San Juan
The Sheraton Hotel in old San Juan will have a neighbor once Sol Meliá completes construction on a new 350-room hotel with the new ME brand, first introduced by the firm last year. ME hotels cater to a dynamic crowd that appreciates fine living, with a trendy flair. Ken Dittrich, Managing Director of the Paradisus Puerto Rico Resort in Puerto Rico advised that the hotel will have a spa, casino, several restaurants and a convention center. While no date for completion has yet been set, this writer feels that a 2008 date would not be out of the realm of possibility.
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