Millennium Hotels targets 50 Middle East properties by 2017
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Millennium and Copthorne Middle East and Africa (MEA) announced its intent to open 20 new hotels in Saudi Arabia, which is part of a wider plan to operate 50 properties throughout the region by 2017.
The hotel group will open hotels in Riyadh, Jeddah, Medina and Makkah, as well as important second tier cities such as Hayel, Jizan, Tabouk and Baha. In total, it will have over 7,000 rooms in the Kingdom.
“The market opportunity within the Kingdom has increased through growing domestic travel, a short supply of midscale hotels, five-star hotels in second-tier cities, especially for corporate travellers and significant and sustained growth of religious tourism,” said Ali Hamad Lakhraim Alzaabi, president and CEO – Millennium and Copthorne Middle East.
Alzaabi’s comments were further supported by the group’s subsequent announcement that Millennium & Copthorne Hotels MEA had obtained a license to operate in Saudi Arabia as a branch of a foreign company and is currently in the process of establishing an office in the Kingdom in one of the major Saudi cities.
Currently Millennium and Copthorne Hotels & Resorts operates 17 hotels, with approximately 5,000 rooms across UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, Oman and Iraq, with an ambitious expansion plan.
In addition to Saudi hotels, over the next 12-18 months new properties are planned to open across the region in UAE, Kuwait and Oman. This is in line with the group’s business plan to operate 50 properties throughout the Middle East and Africa by 2017.
The hotel Group released its 2013 financial results featuring a 34% increase in gross operating profit (GOP) year-on-year for Middle East hotels.
“The hotel group witnessed impressive growth across all of its Middle East portfolio, which returned a 23.3% increase in total revenue compared with 2012,” said Alzaabi.
In Dubai, total revenue jumped by 12% and gross operating profit by 30.3%. The group’s three hotels in Abu Dhabi, including Grand Millennium Al Wahda, made a signification contribution to overall regional figures, with a 7.6% increase in occupancy levels and 30.8% increase in gross operating profit in 2013.
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