Cancun Gets a Renovation, Punta Cana Gets a Record Year

Riu has completed a full renovation of Riu Palace Peninsula in Cancun, reopening the 618-room property with a new adults-only "Elite Club" tier operating inside what remains a family resort. For advisors, that's a single address that can serve both sides of a wedding party: family room blocks for the ceremony and a exclusive, adults-only zone for the couple's honeymoon stay, without switching hotels. The full gut renovation gives agents a genuinely refreshed product to pitch in a Cancun market that competes hard against Riviera Maya and Los Cabos for group business. The practical takeaway for bookings now in motion for 2027: treat Elite Club as a straightforward upsell conversation layered on top of standard room-block negotiations, and get current photography and rate tiers from Riu before quoting mixed family/honeymoon groups here.

The Dominican Republic closed 2025 with a record $5.03 billion in foreign direct investment, its fourth consecutive record year, and tourism was the single largest sector at 26.3% of the total, President Luis Abinader announced. No specific resort projects are named, but sustained investment at this scale in the country's top wedding and honeymoon market points toward continued renovation, expansion, and new-property activity across Punta Cana and beyond over the coming planning cycle. For advisors building room blocks 12 to 18 months out, it's a signal to keep watching for newly announced or refreshed properties rather than something bookable today. Treat it as a pipeline indicator: capital flowing into DR tourism now tends to surface as renovated wings, added categories, or new openings within a year or two.