Small Luxury Hotels of the World will be holding a series of Showcases in key cities across Europe in the coming weeks to launch its 2006 Directory.

A total of nine Showcases will be held over a four-week period, with representatives from a selection of SLH’s worldwide properties visiting the cities of London, Brussels, Paris, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Zurich, Milan and Amsterdam. By the end of February, the group, comprising between 20 and 40 hotels, as well as representatives from SLH’s corporate office in the UK, will have met with over 700 travel agents.

“Travel agents continue to be an invaluable reservation source for our member hotels and so it is imperative that we ensure that they are kept up-to-date with new developments at SLH. Annual events like the European Showcases provide us with the opportunity to do just that,” commented Paul Kerr, Joint Managing Director of Small Luxury Hotels of the World.

The SLH 2006 global Directory includes the addition of 59 new member hotels, representing the group’s largest growth since its formation in 1991. And for the first time, the SLH brand has a presence in countries like Russia, Estonia, St Lucia, Laos and South Korea, as well as in the cities of Berlin, Brussels, Moscow, Milan and Turin. The collection of Small Luxury Hotels of the World now includes 359 hotels across 59 countries.

With the addition of the new member hotels, this year’s SLH Directory will be even bigger, and with the inclusion of slight refinements it will be even more user-friendly. Each of the 359 hotels will have a dedicated full colour page, which will include detailed commentary about the hotel, two images, as well as booking information.

These details are also replicated on slh website where each hotel has a more extensive commentary stretching over nine pages can be found. SLH has produced a CD-Rom version of the Directory again this year. In addition to English and French editions, SLH has for the first time produced a German language version of the e-Directory. With the growing demand for SLH properties from German speaking markets, and a 33% increase in travel out of Germany to SLH properties in 2005, this move has been seen as a necessity.