RIU and Club Med to Open New Hotels in Mexico

The Spanish chain RIU Hotels and Resorts is opening a new Palace-level property, its highest grade of resort, in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, in 2006. The new, upscale RIU Palace Riviera Maya will join 14 other Palace properties in operation worldwide and a 15th also under development in Punta Cana, Domincan Republic.

Club Med also announced plans to open a third Mexican resort, most likely on the Yucatan peninsula, in the near future. Club Med officials in Paris said the property, to be geared to the upscale family market, could either be opened in an acquired, existing Yucatan-area resort or built from the ground up. No target opening date has been set.