Ramada International Hotels & Resorts, a division of Marriott International (NYSE:MAR), and Global V Hospitality, Inc. have entered into an agreement that will result in the development of 80 hotels over five years. The agreement will include hotels in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Syria. The first hotels are expected to open in Tunisia, Lebanon and Egypt.
Global V Hospitality has offices in Cairo, Beirut, Toronto and Las Vegas and operates hotels around the world.
This is truly a monumental agreement that will significantly expand Ramadas special brand of hospitality to thousands of travelers in the Middle East, said Reas Kondraschow, senior vice president and managing director, Ramada International Hotels & Resorts. We are delighted to be working with Global V Hospitality, which shares our vision for the future and our commitment to guest service and customer value.
We are excited by these additions to our lodging portfolio," said Jim Awad, President and CEO of Global V Hospitality. We see the Middle East and North Africa as a major opportunity for growth of the Ramada brand. We have been managing hotels in North America for over 14 years and knew it was important for us to partner with Ramada International. We needed to set a high standard in brand definition to meet the needs of the upper mid-market traveler in these key destinations. We are proud to work with Ramada International, and their quality properties. Our priority is to deliver the caliber of superlative customer service that Ramada International provides.
The agreement includes development of all of Ramada Internationals products, such as the high-end Ramada Plaza hotels, mid-tier Ramada Hotels, Ramada Resorts and the contemporary-designed Ramada Encore hotels, which are geared toward budget-conscious business and leisure travelers.
All of the hotels will maintain Ramada Internationals five pillars, which are: a restful sleep, an invigorating shower, a well-trained staff, an exceptional level of cleanliness and the Ramada Mornings Breakfast a selection that is hot, delicious and easy. These standards will be maintained with quality assurance
visits to the hotels and staff training by Ramada International.
The Ramada hotels will benefit from Marriott Internationals powerful worldwide sales and marketing distribution network, travel agent programs and Marriotts successful MARSHA reservations system.
The brand has more than quadrupled its hotel portfolio over the last year, going from 26 hotels at the beginning of 2001 to more than 130 hotels in April 2002. This growth is largely due to large-scale franchise agreements with Treff Hotels of Germany and Jarvis Hotels of Great Britain. In addition, Ramada International added hotels in Northern Ireland, China, India, Indonesia (Bali), Argentina, Switzerland, and Oman. |
