One of the World's Biggest Hotel Groups Just Entered a Country It Never Had a Property In

Hyatt has opened its first hotel in Guyana, moving into a fast-growing South American market it had never operated in before. The company and RJR Investments & Holdings have brought the 80-room Atlantic Suites Hotel in Georgetown into the Hyatt portfolio as an affiliated property.

That is only the first phase. A new adjoining tower, part of a roughly $50 million plan, will eventually connect to the existing building to create the 240-room Hyatt Regency Georgetown Guyana, targeted for 2028. The redevelopment lands on one of Georgetown's best-known hotel addresses.

The timing is not a coincidence. Guyana has become one of the world's fastest-growing economies on the back of a massive offshore oil boom, and the surge in energy investment, business travel and development money has driven demand for international-standard hotel rooms that the capital has struggled to supply. Global brands are now racing to fill that gap.

For Hyatt, the move extends a company already deep in the Caribbean through its Hyatt Inclusive Collection all-inclusive resorts in Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. Guyana is a different kind of bet: business and government travel rather than beach vacations, in a market where being first carries real weight. Securing a flagship address in Georgetown now gives Hyatt a head start as competitors line up behind the country's oil-driven growth.