Holiday Inn Visibility extends in Middle East, Africa

Holiday Inn is reinforcing its position as the most dependable, friendly and modern accommodation provider to today's business and leisure traveller with new hotels, resorts and upgrades across the Middle East and Africa.

Since establishing its presence in the region back in 1977, the Holiday Inn brand has built a strong reputation for providing service matching the highest expectations of guests, while tailoring hospitality to reflect local culture and tradition.

This is a common theme, from the Middle East and Africa's smallest Holiday Inn hotel, in Ulundi, South Africa (72 rooms), to the largest, a spectacular resort at Sharm El Sheikh on Egypt's red sea coast (552 rooms), and it will remain unchanged in the face of major development.

Six Continents Hotels currently operates 64 Holiday Inn hotels and resorts in the Middle East and Africa, and another 11 open for business in the next 18 months. The new properties will increase capacity by 30% to total more than 15,000 beds, further entrenching Holiday Inn as the region's leading provider of affordable business and leisure lodgings, as well as conference and event venues.

"With all the new developments being undertaken, Holiday Inn is offering its acclaimed full service facilities to key business and leisure markets," explains David Atkinson, Six Continents Hotels' Area Director, Sales and Marketing, Holiday Inn, Middle East and Africa who was speaking at the World Travel Market, in Earl's Court, London today.

"The Middle East remains a major travel destination. As a percentage of global tourism, it is second only to Europe. Constantly the authorities of the Middle East countries are revealing economic plans in which tourism plays a major role. Holiday Inn will help realise those plans."

Nowhere is this interaction more evident than in Egypt, where the 330-room Holiday Inn Heliopolis will be one of two properties operated by Six Continents Hotels as part of the $600m CityStars Heliopolis project being built at the heart of Cairo. CityStars will redefine luxury tourist, business and conference destinations in the Middle East when it opens in 2002, and is one of the key pillars of the Egyptian government's economic plans for the future, which place a huge emphasis on twinning tourism to other economic activities.

Boosting Tunisia's stature as a travel and business destination is the Holiday Inn Resort Hammamet, which opens in January 2002. It is part of the new integrated resort of Yasmine Hammamet, and boasts 276 comfortable rooms, a wide range of recreation facilities, five restaurants, and a large Thalasso Therapy centre.

The Holiday Inn Resort Hammamet represents a prime example of Holiday Inn versatility for organisers of small and large events, offering six conference rooms handling up to 250 people. Like all Holiday Inn properties in the Middle East and Africa, it offers "Conference Network", the highly flexible assistance programme for meeting planners, and conference and event organisers, guaranteeing the support of professionally trained specialist staff from start to finish.

The recent opening of the Al Khobar Holiday Inn on Saudi Arabia's east coast, between Khobar, Dhahran and Dammam, has increased the brand's presence in the Kingdom to seven hotels. Also recently, the opening of the Holiday Inn Bur Dubai established the brand's third property in the United Arab Emirates, while the Holiday Inn Resort Amphorous Sharm El Sheikh became the brand's second resort in the popular Egyptian leisure retreat.

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