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Millennium plans 35 more hotels in region

Millennium Hotels & Resorts announced the opening of its regional headquarters in Abu Dhabi and said it also plans to develop 35 new hotels in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) over the next five years.

The company said in a statement that it would also expand its participation at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) due to take place next month to further outline its ambitious expansion plans.

"Our approach to the market will mainly focus on management contracts which will cover different levels; our Millennium brand as our five star brand, our Copthorne brand which will focus on the four star development and introducing, for the first time in the region, our three star brand which is the Kingsgate as an upper three star brand" said Ali Hamad Lakhraim, president of Millennium Hotels & Resorts for Middle East & Africa.

He said that the company's vast global experience across the range of three, four and five star hotel classes would allow it to add a considerable amount of weight to the market, and that its combination of both eastern and western philosophies, backed by strong local management would help to give it an international edge.

"Our Kingsgate brand, for the three star ranges, existing mainly in Australia and New Zealand will be launched within a few months with its first property in Abu Dhabi and will target a different type of clientele focusing on the basic requirements of the guest.

We envisage this brand to grow quickly with a plan to have more than 20 hotels in the area for the next three years," he said.

Millennium Hotels has already signed a management contract for a new 218 room hotel in Doha, the group's first hotel in Qatar, due to open in September 2006.

Existing properties in the region include the Millennium Hotel Abu Dhabi (325 rooms), Millennium Airport Hotel Dubai (496 rooms) and the Millennium Hotel Sharjah (259 rooms).

The Coral Beach Diving Hotel in the resort of Marsa Alam Port Ghalib in Egypt (206 rooms). The Millennium Tiran Hotel & Resort at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt is due to open early in 2007 with around 440 rooms, said Lakhraim.

"We have quadrupled our presence at ATM this year in an effort to launch our expansion plans and seek out new opportunities," said Manfred Simons, vice president operations and development of Millennium Hotels MENA.

"Upon completion, Millennium Hotels & Resorts will have about one third of its global room capacity in the MENA region." Currently, Millennium Hotels owns, asset manages and operates over 100 hotels in 15 countries around the world.

One of the world's leading hotel groups, it has had its shares listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), since 1995, when CDL Hotels International acquired the Copthorne group of hotels, giving it access to key properties in the UK, France and Germany, in a deal valued at dhs 1.4 billion (£219 million).

Moreover, in November 1999, the company acquired the Seoul Hilton in South Korea for dhs 903 million (£140 million) and then in December 1999, it also acquired the Regal Hotels group in the USA for a sum of dhs 2.54 billion (£395 million).

© 7Days 2006