The Divi Tiara Beach Resort on Cayman Brac,
Cayman Islands, will close on Sept. 23, according to Mark Steward,
vice president of sales and marketing for North Carolina-based Divi
Resorts.
Steward said that
the decision to close the property "will allow us to concentrate
our efforts on expanding the Divi Resorts brand in Caribbean
destinations with greater opportunities for
development."
Factors such as
airlift to the destination, increased competition from the growing
number of niche market dive destinations in the Caribbean and
weather-related issues (which have pushed up insurance costs),
influenced Divi's decision to shut down its operation on Cayman
Brac.
Divi Resorts
currently operates eight resorts on five Caribbean islands
including three in Aruba, two in Barbados and one each in Bonaire,
St. Croix and St. Maarten.
Divi will continue
with plans to open a second hotel in Bonaire in 2008, an
all-inclusive four-star resort with a full-service dive center. In
addition, Divi broke ground earlier this year on a new development
at the Divi Aruba Phoenix Beach Resort in Aruba that will add 140
suites to the existing 101 units. That project is set for
completion in March 2008.
To
contact the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Gay
Nagle Myers at [email protected].