The InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has 110 hotels in the pipeline for the Middle East, India and Africa due to open over the next three to five years, according to top company officials for the region.
The developments will include seven hotels in the UAE, eight in Saudi Arabia, 37 in India and others mainly in South East Asia, said Jan Smits, IHG chief executive for Asia, Middle East and Africa at a media roundtable yesterday. In the UAE, IHG is planning to open a 132-room InterContinental Dubai Marina at the end of 2013 and a 442-room Crowne Plaza Resort in Ras Al Khaimah by 2015, the company announced.
The seven new hotels will add 1,500 rooms over the next three years to the UAE, where IHG currently has 18 hotels or 4,960 rooms. These will include two InterContinental hotels, two Crowne Plaza hotels and three Staybridge Suites. IHG sees more opportunities to grow in the mid-scale range hotel market in Dubai, Smits added.
In Saudi Arabia, where IHG has 2,450 rooms in the pipeline, it is introducing the Hotel Indigo brand to the market by 2014 for the first time in the Middle East, Smits said. It currently operates 22 hotels there or 5,100 rooms. Strong leisure and religious tourism and high GDP growth in Saudi Arabia make it a “very promising market” for long-term growth, Smits said.
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