Hotel.

Mr. Hospitality

DEVELOPER OF LUXURY HOTELS, landlord of supermarkets, owner of shopping malls... Salvadoran Ricardo Poma is a powerhouse. The Poma family dynasty, dating to the early 1900s, today may be best known for its Central American hotels bearing the Camino Real (unrelated to the Camino Real chain in Mexico) and Camino Real Inter Continental names. But the debut of an Inter-Continental Hotel near the Miami International Airport has moved Poma beyond his usual stomping ground. He talks to LATIN TRADE's Mary Dempsey about his plans.

You recently opened your first hotel outside Central America. Why Miami?

It's a gateway to Latin America and having a hotel in Miami helps to better serve our guests. It's also part of a master plan. We've owned the 100 acres where the hotel is for a long time, trying to decide how to develop it. We're now planning a shopping and entertainment district there.

Where next?

We'll stay in this hemisphere. In the U.S., maybe Los Angeles or Washington or Houston--the cities that are entryways to or exits from Latin America. Also, selectively, we may enter countries in South America but we have no specific plans as yet.

And your hotel projects in Central America?

The hotel in Miami was our fifth with Inter-Continental. Our hotel in Managua, to open in July, will be No. 6. We'll add another in Guatemala in October so, by the beginning of 2001, we'll have 10 hotels we own in Central America.

Does that mean you're not abandoning Central America for greener pastures?

No, we own franchise rights for the Choice hotel name for all of Central America so we'll be doing midmarket hotels with Choice. In the future, we may also look at highend resort properties in Costa Rica and Guatemala, maybe with Inter-Continental. But the market is not large enough, At some time we'll have to start looking elsewhere.

Do you personally have a favorite hotel?

(Laughter followed by silence.l

Well, if you won't play favorites, tell us what you do away from work.

I really like the ocean. If I want to get away, I go to our beach house in El Salvador. When I need good food and culture, France and Italy are my favorite places. And I have a home in the mountains in Colorado. But I work so much, I don't get to escape very often.

When you do escape, I hear it's often aboard your own plane.

I fly a Citation Excel. I've been flying for more than 30 years, and I fly to all my meetings in my own jet. I have a co-pilot, but I'm the one who pilots it.

You're involved in several projects unrelated to your work. Is there one you're especially proud of?

About eight years ago, we started a university in El Salvador with a mission to train future leaders. We have academic agreements and advisers from Universidad Catolica de Chile, ITESM [Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey], Wharton... The school costs about one-tenth what it costs to study in the United States. We now have 400 students.

Why did you decide to start the Escuela Superior de Economia y Negocios (Esen)?

I believe education is one of the most important ways to help development and fight poverty. With an educated population, economic and social development will occur.