Intercontinental Hotels Group, which operates the Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn brands among others, will bring its luxury hotels to Saudi Arabia's planned Red Sea tourism destination as the country pushes to transform its economy.
IHG is in talks with developers in the kingdom to bring its top brands, potentially the Intercontinental Resorts or Regent hotel, to the eco-resort spread over a lagoon of 50 islands, Pascal Gauvin, the managing director of India, Middle East and Africa at IHG, told The National on the sidelines of the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai.
“We will be involved in the project in the Red Sea, we are working with them, we are looking at what brand will better fit their market, we are looking at what are their needs in terms of the environment and help them work in that direction,” he said. “There is a lot of common points between our thinking and what they want to do.”
The global hotel company is also entering preliminary talks to discuss business opportunities in Saudi Arabia’s NEOM project, a $500 billion mega-city on the Red Sea coast near the Egyptian resort of Sharm al Sheikh, Mr Gauvin said.
Initial groundbreaking at the Red Sea project is scheduled for the third quarter of 2019 with the first phase to be finished by the end of 2022 and will be developed by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund.
IHG is bullish on the Middle East market, where it seeks to grow by 25 percent its number of hotels over the next three to five years. It wants to capitalise on Saudi Arabia’s focus to develop its tourism industry on a large scale as the kingdom diversifies its economy away from reliance on petro-dollars.
_________________
Read more:
Saudi Arabia plans mega Red Sea tourism project
Saudi Arabia says tourist visa rules ‘complete’
_________________
The first phase of the Red Sea project will include the development of hotels and luxury residential units as well as all logistical infrastructure.
“They’re looking at the way they’re going to develop, what they want to start with, when will be the first resort and how long it will take to build, so really there’s a lot of details about logistics because you’re creating everything from scratch,” Mr Gauvin said.
IHG expects to sign contracts for the deal “for sure” but discussions are still ongoing and more meetings are scheduled, he said. It is “too premature” to decide on the number of hotels in the deal.
There is also a possibility for IHG to introduce its lifestyle brands, the mid-scale hotels of Indigo or Holiday Inn, but plans for hotel types have yet to be finalised, he said.
IHG, which has 5,300 hotels globally, has 84 hotels in the Middle East. It’s got 31 hotels in Saudi Arabia and signed a deal with Hokair group to bring 10 Holiday Inn Express hotels to the Kingdom.
Tips for used car buyers
- Choose cars with GCC specifications
- Get a service history for cars less than five years old
- Don’t go cheap on the inspection
- Check for oil leaks
- Do a Google search on the standard problems for your car model
- Do your due diligence. Get a transfer of ownership done at an official RTA centre
- Check the vehicle’s condition. You don’t want to buy a car that’s a good deal but ends up costing you Dh10,000 in repairs every month
- Validate warranty and service contracts with the relevant agency and and make sure they are valid when ownership is transferred
- If you are planning to sell the car soon, buy one with a good resale value. The two most popular cars in the UAE are black or white in colour and other colours are harder to sell
Tarek Kabrit, chief executive of Seez, and Imad Hammad, chief executive and co-founder of CarSwitch.com
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Getting%20there
%3Cp%3EGiven%20its%20remote%20location%2C%20getting%20to%20Borneo%20can%20feel%20daunting%20even%20for%20the%20most%20seasoned%20traveller.%20But%20you%20can%20fly%20directly%20from%20Kuala%20Lumpur%20to%20Sandakan%20and%20Sepilok%20is%20only%20half%20an%20hour%20away%20by%20taxi.%20Sandakan%20has%20plenty%20of%20accommodation%20options%2C%20while%20Sepilok%20has%20a%20few%20nature%20lodges%20close%20to%20the%20main%20attractions.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Getting there
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly to Johannesburg or Cape Town daily. Flights cost from about Dh3,325, with a flying time of 8hours and 15 minutes. From there, fly South African Airlines or Air Namibia to Namibia’s Windhoek Hosea Kutako International Airport, for about Dh850. Flying time is 2 hours.
The stay
Wilderness Little Kulala offers stays from £460 (Dh2,135) per person, per night. It is one of seven Wilderness Safari lodges in Namibia; www.wilderness-safaris.com.
Skeleton Coast Safaris’ four-day adventure involves joining a very small group in a private plane, flying to some of the remotest areas in the world, with each night spent at a different camp. It costs from US$8,335.30 (Dh30,611); www.skeletoncoastsafaris.com
Brief scores:
QPR 0
Watford 1
Capoue 45' 1
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Results
Stage 7:
1. Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto Soudal - 3:18:29
2. Sam Bennett (IRL) Deceuninck-QuickStep - same time
3. Phil Bauhaus (GER) Bahrain Victorious
4. Michael Morkov (DEN) Deceuninck-QuickStep
5. Cees Bol (NED) Team DSM
General Classification:
1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates - 24:00:28
2. Adam Yates (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers - 0:00:35
3. Joao Almeida (POR) Deceuninck-QuickStep - 0:01:02
4. Chris Harper (AUS) Jumbo-Visma - 0:01:42
5. Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-Nippo - 0:01:45
SPECS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%202-litre%20direct%20injection%20turbo%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%207-speed%20automatic%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20261hp%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20400Nm%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20From%20Dh134%2C999%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
