(www.biznow.gy) One of Guyana’s most prominent hotels the Princess Hotel and Casino on Tuesday announced the rebranding of its property to RAMADA Georgetown Princess during a press conference at the hotel’s boardroom, Providence. This agreement was endorsed by the Ministry of Tourism on December 19, 2013.

RAMADA is a part of the world’s largest company the Wyndham Hotel groups, with over 7,200 hotels and approximately 612,000 rooms in over 65 countries. It is against this background that the Princess hotel will reinvest over US $5M into the renovation and refurbishing of its rooms, pools, restaurant, lobby, ballroom, reception and other public areas. Additionally new elevators will replace the current ones throughout the building.

Speaking at the press conference, Cuneyt Dalcan, Princess Hotel’s General Manager highlighted that this refurbishing period will last for six months and it includes the installation of Led technology in the building, including the parking lot.  He added that this is a major milestone and it will boost the country’s tourism potential.

Minister of Tourism, Irfaan Ali during his remarks, congratulated the team from the Princess Hotel for their undertaking and noted that, “RAMADA is probably one of the most prominent groups that you will see when you travel overseas. It is not only one of the largest chains in the world, but is one of the most dynamic and expansive marketing programmes.”

He added that RAMADA brings with it not only a name change, but a level of service that is second to none.

The Minister also noted that this undertaking will see an investment of US$7M by Princess Hotel for the upgrading of their facilities and making changes.

Minister Ali said money has been allocated for a hospitality institute in the 2014 budget, which government is hoping will cater for both international and local students. To this extent, the Tourism Ministry will be engaging other hospitality centers to have the best training and certification offered.

The Minister said that the tourism sector has been benefiting from a lot of investments both locally and internationally.

Internationally branded hotels are one of the key tourism attractions in any country. The Minister noted that individuals research a country before visiting, and look for a brand hotel so that they can have the quality service they may have experienced or is expecting to have.

He noted that the Ministry is currently finalising negotiations with another carrier, which is interested in bringing its service to Guyana, as well as examining other investment opportunities including the creation of more hotel rooms.