In the first half of the year, the group opened 9 hotels featuring 2,300 rooms; and added 16 hotels featuring 3,700 rooms to the pipeline The Rezidor Hotel Group announces the opening of five hotels (1,300 rooms) and signing of 10 hotels (2,300 rooms) in the Second Quarter of 2012 which is ahead of last year's quarterly results.
The Q2 new openings include two stunning flagship resorts in Corsica and Gran Canaria, further strengthening the group's resort portfolio which now features almost 50 properties and 13,000 rooms across Europe, the Middle East & Africa. "I am also pleased to announce the signing of two new-build hotels in East London with a total of 380 rooms," says Puneet Chhatwal, Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer of The Rezidor Hotel Group. "London is a strategically important, mega-market for Rezidor. We aim to further grow in-depth of this market through our mid-market hotel brand, Park Inn by Radisson. Rezidor aims to have more than 10 Park Inn hotels in the Greater London area in the next three to four years." adds Chhatwal. The group's prime growth focus, however, remains on the emerging markets. "We want to go deeper in the fast developing business hubs of Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, United Arab Emirates, Turkey and South Africa," explains Chhatwal. "Hotels in these markets will, most likely, be new built - so we will see less conversions going forward. However, there is a huge potential of taking over partially unfinished hotel projects in mature markets: this year alone, we signed Park Inn by Radisson Odintsovo in Moscow, a Radisson Blu Hotel in Kyiv Podil and a Park Inn in Glasgow City Centre, which are all scheduled to open within this year, signalling the big potential take-over of available hybrids of conversions and new constructions," said Chhatwal.
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