Casino resorts planned for Guatemala

Alekson sees immense luxury tourism potential in this developing country of 13 million people immediately south of Mexico. His Seattle-based Alekson Development Group has signed an agreement with the Guatemala government for control of six gaming licenses in exchange for 20 % of the net gaming win being donated to the Guatemala Pediatric Association.

"Primarily, we are being set up so we can take the majority of the profits for some resorts and use them for various government agencies to improve the lives of the people of Guatemala," said Alekson, as reported on Hotelsmag.com. An additional percentage of the profits will be donated to other charities, Alekson promises. "Primarily, we're being set up so we can take the majority of the profits for some resorts and use them for various government agencies to improve the lives of the people of Guatemala," he says.

When Alekson first visited Guatemala, casinos were the furthest thing from his mind. In the time that he spent there, however, his opinions have changed, and he now believes that casinos could prosper in the country. He considers Guatemala a logical jumping-off point for the Luxuriant brand due to its close proximity to the United States and its geographic diversity of mountain, beach and jungle locales. That the country is largely unknown to tourists gives it an added mystique, he says. Americans, Canadians and Western Europeans are expected to make up the bulk of visitors.

The gaming operations will be branded as Luxuriant World Resorts and operated by a third-party gaming company—Alekson is not sure which one yet, but he says it will not be a Las Vegas-based operator. "It may be more culturally conducive to have someone come out of Europe—Spain or Portugal, perhaps," he says.

Adjoining hotels will feature one or more international flags, and the resorts will be collectively marketed within a luxury consortium called Luxuriant Masterpiece Collection. Each Luxuriant resort will be between 121 and 202 hectares and will cost in the range of us$ 200 million. New Jersey-based Horizon Hotels Ltd. will act as asset manager for Luxuriant properties.

Alekson has not yet settled on sites for the resorts, but he says destinations near the UNESCO World Heritage-protected city of La Antigua, along with Flores El Peten, near the ancient Mayan ruins of Tikal, are likely candidates for investment. Alekson expects to start development on the first property this year, with the first Luxuriant property slated to open by 2012.

Future Luxuriant resorts are planned elsewhere in Central and South America, with a goal of six properties open within 10 years. Peru, Argentina and Brazil are long-term targets, as is Cuba.

After all, the former chief operating officer of Milliken Development Group once shared that skepticism:"I was invited to Guatemala a couple of years ago, and I looked at the country and thought, 'Oh, do I really want to get involved in what I perceived to be a Third World country?'" said Alekson, "Of course, my perception of the country has changed dramatically over the time I've been working there."