Ambitious expansion plans. Millennium and Copthorne Middle East and Africa (MEA) has announced that it will open 20 new hotels in the Kingdom of 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 which will make it top priority for the company.
“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 the significant and sustained growth of religious tourism,” said Ali Hamad Lakhraim Alzaabi, President & CEO of Millennium and Copthorne Middle East.
Currently Millennium and Copthorne Hotels & Resorts operates 17 hotels, with approximately 5,000 rooms across the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan, Qatar, Oman and Iraq, with an ambitious expansion plan. In addition to the 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.
