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Two Mexican companies will invest more than US $1 billion to build a 3,000-room hotel and 10,000-square-meter convention center in Cancún, Quintana Roo. President López Obrador and Tourism

Secretary Miguel Torruco announced on Wednesday that the Grand Island Cancún project is going ahead. The Secretariat of the Environment granted approval for construction in July. The

mega-hotel will be built in two stages by the companies Murano and BVG World. The first stage, which includes the construction of 2,000 hotel rooms as well as guest amenities, the convention

center, swimming pools and a parking lot, will open in 2022. A further 1,000 rooms and more amenities will be built in the second stage, which is expected to be completed in 2024. The hotel

will be built on two parcels of land in the second section of Cancún’s hotel zone. The Kukulcán boulevard site is near the Nichupté Lagoon Natural Protected Area but the developers say that

neither flora nor fauna will be adversely affected by construction of the hotel. Torruco said that Mexico’s state-owned bank Bancomext and two foreign banks will provide funding. This is

“one of the biggest investments . . . in a hotel in the past 30 years,” he said. The convention center will be Cancún’s biggest. Murano general manager Marcos Sacal said that construction of

the hotel will create 7,500 direct and indirect jobs and that a further 12,000 positions will be generated once it opens. López Obrador said that the project will provide a boost for the

Quintana Roo economy. “It’s very important to highlight that we’re doing well . . . with investment in the tourism sector. We haven’t had any problem, there has been investment, jobs are

being created. This sector is strategic because it doesn’t just generate wealth but also distributes wealth. It’s an activity that enables income for workers . . . it completely reactivates

the economy,” he said. The president said the development of new hotels in Cancún has acted as a magnet for workers from other states in the southeast of the country. “. . . Fortunately,

they’re continuing to invest and there continues to be economic growth,” López Obrador said. _Source: El Economista (sp) _