Tourism Minister David Allen expects that his goal of increasing the number of hotel beds in Bermuda by 500 by 2004 will be easily achieved.

This year at least 134 new licensed beds will come on line. And the Minister says that achievement alone will put the Island “well ahead of the curve”.

The numbers could well be higher if investor/owners of luxury condos cash in on tax benefits through the Hotel Concessions Act, he said.

The properties which are expected to come online this year are the Wharf Suites (the former Palm Reefs site), with 60 beds, the Palmetto Suites Hotel in Flatts (44) and The Cottage on Ireland Island (30).

The Minister is also issuing a hotel licence for the Tuckers' Point Club and said Bermuda will have luxury villa-type accommodation there as early as this May or June.

Palmetto Suites, like The Tuckers Point development will have residential units owned by individual owners, which have to be leased back as tourist accommodation for at least six months of the year in order to get the Hotel Concessions Act concessions.

If owners take up that option the bed count could be boosted even further.

And the Minister has given in-principle approval for the development of a new resort and spa at the former Lantana Hotel property, called the Lantana Sanctuary and Spa and Resort at Lantana - a mixed use hotel, condo-hotel and spa. The three phase development will start construction this year. Phase one will see 14 of 40 resort/spa suites available as visitor accommodation, four corporate suites and six cottage residences with a possible lease back arrangement as tourist accommodation. The second phase, to start next year, will include another 15 resort/spa suites and 17 beachfront suites and the third phase, in 2004, will include another 11 resort/spa suites and seven other suites.

Mr. Allen described it as a “wellness resort and a conference centre”, where high end clients and their families can get “makeovers in mind, body and soul”. The development is, however, subject to planning approval, he stressed.

Mr. Allen said construction of the new Belmont Hotel is due to begin this summer - almost immediately following the demolition of the old one.

The three phase project will eventually land Bermuda with developed real estate comprising 27 villas, 76 golf-view apartments and a 152-room hotel with swimming pool.

First to come on-stream in 2003 will be a golf course and clubhouse with a 100-seat restaurant and bar. The villas are scheduled to be completed by January, 2004, and the apartments should be completed by the middle of summer 2004 to round off phase two. And the final phase - the hotel - should be completed by 2005, he said. Up to 146 bedrooms from the Belmont apartments will be potentially available for leaseback as tourist accommodation for up to six months of the year.

The Hamilton Park Hotel - a City hotel in the works for a few years - should finally break ground later this year, the Minister also revealed this week.

The planned seven storey hotel will be geared toward corporate clientele and include a spa, two restaurants, 32 condominiums, 150 hotel suites, and an underground car park. The development should take 30 months, the Minister said.

In other tourism accommodation news, Aman Capital's exclusive option contract for the development of Club Med, has been run out. Club Med property has attracted a total of four applications from potential developers and the Works and Engineering Department, as the leaseholder, is reviewing the applications in conjunction with the hotel development committee.

Bermuda currently has 3,344 hotel rooms with a maximum licensed bed count of 9,113.

The industry employs 3,080 people of whom 2,097 are Bermudians and 983 are non-Bermudians.