WESTERN BUREAU:
A NUMBER of the island's resorts have stepped up their local marketing thrust aiming to entice Jamaican families to 'getaway' this Easter weekend, April 10-13, and experience the best of Jamaica at their properties.
All-inclusive giants SuperClubs lead the way with massive promotional deals at their nine Jamaican hotels, followed by RIU's four resorts and Fiesta's Palladium properties in Point, Hanover.
Enticing guests with rates as low as US$49.50 per person per night, based on a double-occupancy level, the John Issa-led SuperClubs is hoping to fill its European Plan (EP) hotels - Rooms Negril and Ocho Rios - during holy weekend, while their top-brand Grand Lido Braco is using a bacchanal-style carnival beach party to woo locals for three nights and four days of celebration.
Sister properties, Hedonism II and III, Breezes Runaway Bay, Breezes Montego Bay and Starfish Trelawny are offering steals ranging between US$98 and $120 per person per night double occupancy.
Kids-free deals
SuperClubs' rates are as competitive as RIU Resorts, with the latter's busiest and most popular hotel, RIU Ocho Rios, featuring sizzling-hot kids-free deals starting at US$99 per person double occupancy all-inclusive. Ocho Rios is just the first of the ingredients that make up this vacation pie, as Jamaicans can also vacation at the recently refurbished RIU Palace Tropical Bay in Negril at US$125 per person per night.
"We are going all out to ensure we give the crème de la crème to locals staying with us this Easter," promises RIU's director of sales, Angella Bennett. She added that from the spread in the restaurants to Easter Bunny games for children, guests would have a wide variety of international and local cuisine.
"We usually see an influx of families, especially after the GSAT exams," revealed Bennett, and as a result, she said this year they were taking kids free, in some of their hotels.
Along the elegant corridor, the Ritz-Carlton Rose Hall is not only offering accommodation, but the EP resort has planned 'Easter Sunday Lunch' at the White Witch restaurant overlooking the 18-hole championship golf course and the Caribbean Sea.
US$220 per night
In what they have tagged 'Our Hospitality Blooms at Easter', the five-diamond resort is inviting guests to relax in an elegant surrounding and enjoy accommodations priced at US$220 per night.
Maximum occupancy per room is two adults and two children 12 years and under, or three adults. The cost for a third adult is an additional US$75 per night plus 22.25 per cent tax and service charge. Children under 12 years eat complimentary from the kids' menu.