DOHA: The Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts group, Asia Pacific's leading luxury hotel group, will open a Shangri-La Hotel here in 2010. It will be managed by the Faisal Bin Oassim Al Thani & Sons Holding Company WLL.
"Shangri-La will open a hotel here in Doha next year. And it will, of course, have the luxury ambiance of a Shangri-La Hotel," said Debbie Cheung, director of business development Travel Trade of Kowloon Shangri-La, who was here with the Hong Kong Tourism Board to promote Hong Kong as a travel destination.
Developed by the Al Rayan Tourism Development Company WLL, the hotel will have 272 luxurious guest rooms with wireless LAN and high-speed Internet access, 42 serviced apartments and a variety of restaurants including a lobby lounge: Leyla, a piano bar; Sridan, a Middle-Eastern food souq; a Latin American restaurant called Fuego and a Chinese seafood restaurant, Xi'an. The recreation facilities will include Shangri-La's signature spa, CHI, The Spa at Shangri-La. The hotel will include an 840-sq-m grand ballroom and other function rooms. It will also have a helipad on the top floor to facilitate the arrival of VIP guests.
"The Shangri-La Hotel - Doha reconfirms our commitment to expanding in the Middle East. Our target is to build a regional presence of about eight to 10 hotels and we are delighted to be opening a hotel in Doha in a prime location with such dedicated owners," said Madhu Rao, Shangri-La's managing director and chief executive officer.
Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts group owns and manages 60 hotels under the deluxe Shangri-La and mid-market Traders brands. The group also has over 50 projects under development in Austria, Canada, mainland China, France, India, Japan, Macau, Maldives, Philippines, Seychelles, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
By Joyce C Abaño
© The Peninsula 2009
