| Radisson SAS stamps footprints in Africa with six new world-class hotels |
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Six new hotels have been signed in the first six months of 2008 by Rezidor Hotel Group which announced that its planned expansion within the Africa continent is right on track.Four news hotels are currently under construction and willopen in the next few months, and in Mali, the Radisson Hotel Bamako opened its doors last week. Hotels currently under construction are the Radisson Hotel Lagos (Nigeria) and Radisson Hotel Dakar (Senegal), both scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2008 and first quarter of 2009 respectively. The 170 room Radisson SAS Hotel in Lagos is cocooned on the idyllic water front are of Victoria Island,the business hub of the city. In South Africa, three hotels are under construction. The 290 room Radisson SAS Sandton hotel, will open in the last quarter of 2008, the 173 room Radisson SAS Port Elizabeth will open in the same period as the Radisson SAS Sandton, while the Rezidor’s mid-market brand,Park Inn, will be opening in Sandton,Johannesburg in the first quarter of 2010.Continental expansion includes the construction of two Radisson Hotels in East Africa: the 209 room Radisson in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and the 245 room Radisson in Nairobi (Kenya). In both locations, the hotels will be situated in the prime metropolitan hub of business and diplomatic activity of these two cities. The group also announced that an existing hotel in Libya is currently undergoing renovation, and will be renamed the Radisson Hotel Tripoli.The sixth hotel in Egypt, the Radisson Hotel Cairo, will have 427 rooms, and be located in the emerging residential and commercial Heliopolis area, situated next to Cairo International Airport. The latest announcement is the Radisson Resort & Spa Saïdia in Morocco. This luxury resort features 384 guestrooms and 97 villas located on the pristine and unspoiled northeastern Mediterranean coastline of Morocco. “With these development signings, we are now present in 53 countries across Europe, Middle East and Africa”, says Andrew McLachlan, who is responsible for the group’s growth on the African continent and Indian Ocean Islands. Recognizing Africa’s growing potential and the drastic lack of quality hotels in many countries, the Rezidor Hotel Group signed a 35 million EUR financial Joint Venture Agreement with fourNordic Government funds to expand its presence on the continent. The partners have teamed-up their intelligence and financial resources to set up Afrinord Hotel Investments, which provides mezzanine financing or in certain cases secured loans to companies owning and developing hotel and resort projects in Africa. Source: Travel.com |