Accor plans to become no. 1 international hotel group in the Middle East

Already, five new hotels are under way in Saudi Arabia, a 120-unit all-suites development is nearing completion in Bahrain, 1,500 new rooms are due to come on-stream in Dubai, and negotiations are well-advanced for new projects in Kuwait, Syria, and Qatar.

The expansion will give Accor the biggest Middle East presence of any international hotel group in terms of room numbers.

At the same time, the group has signed a general sales agreement with the Saudi Business Insight Group to establish an international sales and reservations office there and capitalise on the Kingdom's potential for inbound and outbound traffic.

Announcing Accor's plans at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, Middle East regional director Christophe Landais stressed that the expansion programme underlines the company's commitment to the region.

"The first of the new properties will be operational later this year and our expansion will accelerate through 2007," he said. "By then, we expect to have added another 23 properties.

"This will create a significant benefit to the regional economy through increased business and leisure travel, job creation, and skills transfer. Our policy, as committed citizen company, is to recruit and train local personnel so that our hotels are staffed as far possible by local people who reflect the national culture and character of the countries where they are situated."

New developments in Saudi include the 200-room Novotel Riyadh and the 230-room Sofitel Al Khobar - both due to open in 2006, the Grand Mercure Golden Jeddah (118 rooms), and the Mercure Turki Makkah (100 rooms) that will open later this year. The 1,240-room Zam Zam Towers in Makkah will also open in 2006.

In Qatar, the new 300 rooms Sofitel al Maha West Bay will be open in summer 2006 in time for the Qatar 2006 Asian Games. In Bahrain, the 120 all-suites Mercure Grand in Manama will open in October.

Accor already has three properties in Dubai - Ibis and Novotel at the World Trade Centre with a combined 620 rooms, and the Sofitel City Centre with 420.

Since opening last August the Ibis brand has achieved occupancy rates of well over 90 per cent, demonstrating that Dubai is ready for a quality economy hotel delivering comfort, simplicity, and practicality.

In the wake of this success, further Ibis properties are planned for business locations in the city. "We are still negotiating the details, but in principle we are committed to building on the success of the Ibis brand in Dubai," says Landais.

Accor's Sofitel Jumeirah Beach Residence with 450 rooms will open by the end of 2006, bringing the company's projected capacity in Dubai to more than 2,500 rooms.

"These are specific projects where we are already committed or under way," says Landais. "We are also at an advanced stage of negotiations for new developments in Qatar, Kuwait, Syria, and Lebanon as well as in other countries where we already have a presence. Our goal is 45 properties in the region by 2007 and we are confident that will be achieved."

With nearly 4,000 hotels in 90 countries (more than 450,000 rooms), Accor opened 170 new properties during 2003 and over the past five years has invested close to 1-billion Euros on expansion.

Roughly 43 per cent of its hotels are mid-range -Novotel and Mercure; 47 per cent economy - Ibis and other budget brands, with the balance comprising upscale establishments such as Sofitel.

Accor exceeded its 500-million Euro profit forecast for the year - and although down 4.3 per cent on 2002 in actual figures, like-for-like revenue grew 1.1 per cent after stripping out the currency effect.