The Middle East’s largest hotel operator InterContinental Hotels Group is to manage a new Holiday Inn resort hotel on the eastern shores of the Dead Sea in Jordan. InterContinental has signed a management contract with Jordan’s Social Security Corporation for the 420-room Holiday Inn Resort Dead Sea, which will become the company’s sixth property in the Kingdom. The new resort hotel will provide mid-scale accommodation.
Construction is expected to start at the end of this year or early next year, and the new resort hotel should start receiving its first guests by early 2006. The hotel, which is to be built on a 70,000 square-meter site, will offer a wide range of facilities consistent with the Holiday Inn brand, including meeting and conference rooms, a ballroom, swimming pools, health spa, tennis courts, restaurants and a children’s playground.
“The addition of the new resort to our portfolio means that we will be offering almost 2,000 rooms in the country, and we are committed to using our global network of hotels and reservations offices to reinforce efforts to promote Jordan as a unique travel destination,” said Chris Moloney, chief operating officer, InterContinental Hotels Group, Middle East and Africa.
Already in Jordan, InterContinental Hotels Group manages the InterContinental Jordan, the Crowne Plaza Resort Petra, the Amra Crowne Plaza Amman and the Holiday Inn Amman, out of a total of 63 hotels and resorts under management in the Middle East. Another InterContinental hotel in Jordan is due to open late next year on the Red Sea at Aqaba.
InterContinental Hotels Group PLC of the United Kingdom owns, manages, leases or franchises, through various subsidiaries, more than 3,300 hotels and 515,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world.
The Group owns a portfolio of brands including InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn, Express by Holiday Inn and Staybridge Suites, and also has a controlling interest in Britvic, the second largest soft drinks manufacturer in the UK. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
