NCTH Plans to Open 3 Five-star Hotels Worth Dh2b

<b><font size="4">in Abu Dhabi</b></font>

09/05/2009 00:00 AST

The Abu Dhabi-based National Corporation For Tourism & Hotels, or NCTH, plans within the next three years to open a trio of five-star hotels in the nation's capital worth more than Dh2 billion, a top official of the company said on Thursday.

The government-owned joint-venture's plans include the Sadiyaat Island Resort, worth Dh600 million, and a Dh600 million Bristol hotel to be built on Abu Dhabi Island, Sultan Ahmed Ghunoum Al Hameli, the company's Managing Director, told ?Khaleej Times.

Hameli disclosed these details after signing a management contract with Millennium and Copthorne Middle East Holding Ltd. making Millennium the exclusive operator of his company's newest hotel development, a Dh1,050 million facility at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center, or ADNEC. The Millennium-managed hotel is expected to open in the third ?quarter of 2011.

Hameli signed the agreement with Millennium President and Chief Executive Officer Ali Hamad Lakhraim at the Arabian Travel Market. Hameli called the partnership "another step in our ambitious expansion plans ?in Abu Dhabi."

Lakhraim said that the hotel, once completed, "would bring about dramatic progress to the already very dynamic development within ADNEC. Millennium is proud to be part of ?this development."

The hotel is now under construcion at one of Abu Dhabi's major city entrances, Al Khaleej Al Arabi Street. It will be managed under the brand "Grand Millennium" and feature 725 rooms, suites and apartments, 14 meeting and conference facilities, 10 international food and beverage outlets and a ballroom with room for ?1000 guests.

NCTH would pay 35 per cent of the project's cost and borrow the remaining 65 per cent from banks, Hameli said.

Khaleej Times