The owners of the Fairmont Southampton confirmed yesterday that they are in talks with a potential buyer.

Kiaran MacDonald, the resort’s general manager, said: “The hotel has been actively up for sale for quite some time. We are in advanced discussions with a prospective purchaser,”

Mr MacDonald added he was “not in a position to share details” of who was involved in the sale talks and dismissed rumours that the hotel had already been sold.

Gencom, a Miami-based investment firm, bought Rosewood Tucker’s Point hotel in 2017 and are said to have explored additions to their Bermuda portfolio.

The company owns, operates and develops real estate properties worldwide with an emphasis on luxury hotels, resorts and branded residential properties.

A spokesman at Gencom’s head office yesterday said the principal and founder Karim Alibhai and Alessandro Colantonio, the executive vice-president for acquisitions, and Phil Keb, the firm’s head of development, were travelling yesterday and not available for comment.

French company AccorHotels took over Fairmont Hotels, which owns the Fairmont Southampton, in 2015.

The owners are known to have been looking for buyers for the 593-room hotel, Bermuda’s largest tourism property.

The news came as Bermuda’s tourism industry started a renaissance.

A record total of 770,683 visitors arrived on the island in 2018, up by 84,775 people, or 11 per cent, on the previous year.

The Bermuda Tourism Authority said last year’s tourists pumped more than $500 million into the economy.

The Fairmont Southampton is considered Bermuda’s “convention hotel” as well as being popular with the tourist trade.

The hotel features ten restaurants, a spa, the 18-hole, par-three Turtle Hill Golf Club, the Mid-Ocean Amphitheatre, and more than 25,000 square feet of meeting space.