$2.8bn hospitality hub to bring 16 international educational institutions to RAK

Located alongside the Emirates Road on a 350 acre plot, Ihottz will include a 260-acre hospitality industry free trade zone development and an additional 90-acre for the ihottz Hospitality Training Campus to address the needs of every segment of the international hospitality and tourism industry.

Bobby Batmanghelidg, President and CEO of Argentum Development Company, announced at the Ras Al Khaimah Conference 2008 held recently that the Ihottz Hospitality Training Campus will start offering educational programmes within 18 months.

"We have teamed up with 16 different international centres of education focused on hospitality sector to offer a comprehensive array of academic and training programmes to address the hospitality industry's human capital challenge which is going to be the largest impediment to the proposed huge growth in the hospitality sector," he said.

Bobby Batmanghelidg said that the ihottz educational campus is designed to accommodate as many as 15,000 students upon completion. He said that the $2.8bn project is being financed by Western Capital and Ihottz has secured half of the project cost already.

Ihottz educational campus will have two centres providing the two- year Hospitality MBA programme, a culinary school with international recognition and a College of Hotel Administration, run by one of the leading international brands, which will offer 4-year and 2- year courses.

"The campus will also host an Entrepreneurial College, which will provide training to the entire spectrum of staff already employed in the hospitality industry. It will also have a Hospitality Technical College, which will train and certify candidates for a specific environment in the hospitality industry, ranging from front office and security to supervision," he added.

He said that the objective of the ihottz initiative was to create a critical mass for attracting students for the hospitality industry on a global basis and added that talks are on with at least six international hotel chains to locate their regional training headquarters at ihottz campus.

"The campus will have 3.5 million square feet of built up space housing 16 different educational institutions including, Universities, colleges and other training centres. It will also house student residential facilities, and full spectrum of in-house educational and entertainment facilities. The educational component will start delivering in another 18 months," Bobby Batmanghelidg added

The industrial component of ihottz, located on a 250- acre plot in a free zone environment, will offer integrated services like hospitality industrial manufacturing and distribution facilities, commercial refrigeration warehouse and other hotel support services like laundry operations, ice manufacturing and industrial baking.