The Holiday Inn Thessaloniki in Greece will become
The Holiday Inn Thessaloniki in Greece will become
The new hotel forms part of a major expansion programme for the group, which has doubled its number of hotels in EMEA in the past five years. Bass Hotels & Resorts sees the potential to double its portfolio again, and believes it can reach the 1,000 hotel milestone in EMEA by the end of 2005.
The company currently owns, operates or franchises 496 hotels in the EMEA region, up from just 207 in 1995. There are now 76 Inter-Continental hotels and resorts, 44 Crowne Plaza hotels, 271 Holiday Inn hotels, 14 Forum hotels and 90 Express By Holiday Inn hotels spread across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
The picture is similarly positive from a global perspective. Bass Hotels & Resorts opened more than 260 new hotels around the world in the financial year to 30 September 2000, reaching a milestone of more than 3,000 hotels in close to 100 countries and territories.
We have completed a particularly successful year in Europe, Middle East and Africa, opening more than 30 new hotels and increasing profits by almost 11 per cent as at the end of the last financial year, said David Bland, managing director for Bass Hotels & Resorts, EMEA. In fact, we managed to open a new guestroom every hour of every day last year.
We`re continuing to grow and see the potential to double our portfolio again within the next five years. You can see how committed we are to growth from the number of hotels that are already in the development pipeline. We`ve approved applications for 106 new hotels in EMEA, and these will open in the next two years.
Summing up his region`s expansion plans, Bland confirmed: We see the potential to double the number of hotels in Europe, Middle East and Africa within the next five years by striving to be the best – with hotels where people really want to stay, by being the best employer, the best hotel managers and offering the best franchise proposition around.
In the Middle East and Africa alone, Bass Hotels & Resorts manages 115 Inter-Continental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn properties, with another 27 currently under development.
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