TOKYO -- Catalog shopping giant Belluna is building a resort hotel in the Maldives under the Westin brand to tap the rise in Japanese, Chinese and European tourists to the Indian Ocean nation.
The Japanese company has acquired a roughly 60,000-sq.-meter island through a newly created local subsidiary. Construction has begun for the 70 planned villas there. Belluna aims to open the resort under the management of U.S. hotel titan Marriott group in 2018. The project is expected to cost in the tens of millions of dollars.
