AIC Hotel Group’s Unico brand is set to make its Jamaican début next March with a 451-room beachfront resort in Montego Bay, St James, where the company says guests will experience Jamaica through its culture, food, music, art, and people.

According to vice-president of global marketing at AIC Hotel Group, Oscar Serrano, the resort intends to make local culture part of the stay rather than simply a backdrop.

Speaking during the Jamaica Product Exchange (JAPEX) 2026 Partner Media Update on Tuesday, Serrano said Unico Montego Bay is the third property in the Unico portfolio, following resorts in Riviera Maya and Riviera Nayarit in Mexico.

He said the brand deliberately avoids applying the same formula to every destination, instead seeking to reflect the character of each location.

The Montego Bay property, located along the North Coast, will comprise four towers with all 451 rooms facing the beach.

Serrano described the concept as “low-key luxury”, with the resort intended to give visitors a sense of the country they are visiting rather than an experience that could be replicated anywhere.

“Our intention of each one of our properties is that it needs to feel, smell, you need to hear and taste the local culture within the property. That’s the intention of each one of our properties,” said Serrano.

For Jamaica, that approach is expected to extend beyond the design and atmosphere of the resort.

Serrano said the company is looking at ways to bring local artists, food producers, and other Jamaicans into the operation, creating opportunities for the surrounding economy to benefit from the resort’s international clientèle.

“It’s not about only saying, it’s not just talking the walk, but walking the talk. So we do things like we bring artists into the building of the hotel, how they decorate the areas, how they bring local artists to the hotel, how we bring real farm to table into the hotel, [and] how we bring local cuisine,” added Serrano.

He said music, Jamaican people, and local culinary influences will also form part of the experience, with a Jamaican culinary ambassador expected to be associated with the property.

The company also sees the resort as a potential channel for Jamaican producers and creatives to reach visitors from international markets.

According to Serrano, AIC’s intention is to create a wider economic connection between the hotel and local communities, including through farmers whose products could be supplied to the property and artists whose work could be displayed.

“It’s a circular economy, it’s not only how you bring people and just decorate rooms and they just get up…it’s how we can help these local communities…and with artists, it’s exactly the same. How can our spaces become the art gallery for these artists in this case? How can they really display their talent to international marketplaces through the lenses of a very specific hotel in Montego Bay?” added Serrano.

The emphasis on Jamaica is part of AIC’s reasoning for choosing Montego Bay as the third destination for the Unico brand.

Serrano said the company was looking for a destination with enough character to contribute something distinctive to the brand.

“From a hotel perspective, we were looking at a destination that can truly bring something to the Unico brand, and we thought that Jamaica has enough personality for many reasons. As I was saying before, it’s the people, it’s the music, it’s the nature, it’s the adventure, it’s the culinary experience that we have in this country, and it’s absolutely fantastic,” he added.

The property is scheduled to open in March 2027, giving the company about six months from the JAPEX update to complete preparations.

Serrano said the hotel is progressing well and AIC expects to begin familiarisation trips for travel advisers ahead of the opening, potentially in December, but particularly in January.

Unico Montego Bay will be marketed as a luxury resort, but Serrano said the brand’s concept is not based solely on the physical property. Rather, the company wants visitors to leave with an experience associated with the destination itself.

“We call it the art of staying. Staying in a hotel is just more than your four walls and the asset where you are staying at. I feel that everybody can really build a beautiful hotel. There are beautiful hotels all over the place. But, again, at the end of the day, when you leave the destination, you always keep with you the experience,” he added.