Marriott International plans to open a luxury JW Marriott Hotel in Cusco, Peru in 2012.

Situated at the gateway to the Andes mountain sanctuary Machu Picchu, the 153-room JW Marriott Hotel Cusco will feature a highly customized design built around a colonial church and ancient Inca artifacts found on the site.

The property will also reflect the casual elegance that distinguishes the JW Marriott brand, a global portfolio of 51 luxury hotels and resorts. The JW Marriott Hotel Cusco will be operated under a management agreement with Inversiones La Rioja, S.A. owners of JW Marriott Hotel Lima.

“We are very proud of this project, which will honor the history and the culture of the Inca people and the heritage of our country and of Cusco,” said Alfonso Brazzini, Chairman of the Board of Inversiones La Rioja, S.A.

“This project will surely be one of the most unique in the world, utilizing the latest engineering and technology to preserve the past and create a hotel environment for today. We are grateful for the collaboration between Inversiones La Rioja and the national and international institutions that provide protection to human heritage.”
Located in the heart of Cusco’s historical district, the hotel will include a museum of prominent artifacts, many of which will be preserved in-situ.

“We are very excited to announce the JW Marriott Cusco, a much needed luxury hotel in one of the world’s great leisure destinations,” Laurent de Kousemaeker, chief development officer for Marriott International, Inc. in the Caribbean & Latin America “The hotel will reflect its incomparable surroundings in a very special way.”
The JW Marriott Cusco will offer an elegantly relaxed décor with a distinctly colonial feel; a stylish lobby lounge; a restaurant serving imaginative cuisine for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In addition to the oxygen delivery system in all rooms, the hotel will help guests adjust to the altitude in spa treatment rooms.

All 153 rooms and suites will be equipped with luxurious bedding and sumptuous bathrooms with soaking tub and separate shower, as well as the latest in in-room technology.

Few leisure destinations in the world compare with Cusco, designated a World Heritage site in the 1980s, located 11,000 feet above sea level in the Andes. The city has witnessed the rise of the Inca empire as well as its demise with the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 16th century. The city’s colonial art school is recognized as one of the most prolific in the Americas. Above all, Cusco serves as the gateway for the world-renowned mountain sanctuary Machu Picchu – accessible only by train along the sacred Urubamba valley – as well as other landmarks, such as the fortress of Sacsayhuaman, the Inca sites of Kenko, Puca
Pucara and the market towns of Pisac and Chincheros.

At an elevation of 11,200 feet above sea level, the JW Cusco will be the first Marriott property to have an in-room supplemental oxygen system to relieve altitude sickness.