Fujairah, United Arab Emirates: The World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) recognized Le Meridien Al Aqah for its contribution in supporting the world billiard championship over the past five years.
The WPA awards ceremony was recently held at Emery Court in Fujairah and highlighted the resort's great efforts in raising the profile of the game of pool and billiards within the UAE and garnering local interest in the sport.
"We are absolutely delighted to be recognized for all of our strides. It is a great honor and we certainly look forward to extending our support in the coming years," said Patrick Antaki, General Manager of Le Meridien Al Aqah.
"Our idea behind introducing a world championship to this region of the world was to try and encourage participation in the Arab countries as a way of developing the game and improving their playing standards," said Ian Anderson, President of the World Pool-Billiard Association.
"I'm very pleased to say that this is exactly what has happened. We started this by allocating a number of spots to guarantee Arab participation in the championship proper. As a result there is nowmore interest than ever from the Arab countries and the number of Arab players entering a qualifying events each year is growing all the time," said Anderson.
Since brining the world championship to Fujairah interest has been on the rise, with the sport covered on various regional television programs.
"The fact that we brought our sport to Fujairah by way of a major championship has undoubtedly been a majorfactorfor the people in Qatar tocommence their own event. I'm sure it won't end with Qatar, we are anticipating requests before too long to stage an event in other nations such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. There is interest too from Iran, Syria and Lebanon," added Anderson.
The Crown Prince of Fujairah, Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi attended the appreciation ceremony.
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About Le Mridien
Le Mridien brand, currently represented by approximately 120 properties in 52 countries, was acquired by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide in November 2005. With close to 70 percent of its properties located in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East, Le Mridien provides a strong international complement to Starwood's primarily North American holdings. Plans call for dynamic expansion of Le Mridien-branded hotels within the next five years, concentrating in the U.S., Latin America, and Asia-Pacific, including destinations such as India, Thailand and China. For more information, please visit www.lemeridien.com
About Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with approximately 900 properties in more than 100 countries and 155,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels and resorts with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, Sheraton, Westin, Four Points by Sheraton, W, Le Mridien and the recently announced AloftSM and ElementSM Hotels. Starwood Hotels also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com/pressclub
Press Release 2008
