Abu Dhabi: Millennium Hotels and Resorts plans to operate six new hotels this year in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region with property openings scheduled for Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Millennium and Copthorne Holdings Middle East chief executive officer Ali Lakhraim said yesterday the company was aggressively pursuing its regional business plan.
"We expect the Grand Millennium Al Wahda, an 850-key hotel in Abu Dhabi to open by July, which would give us greater leverage in Abu Dhabi," he said.
Executive apartments
"We also plan to open Millennium executive apartments on Electra Street in Abu Dhabi by the end of this year."
Lakhraim said the Millennium Plaza, a 412-key hotel on Dubai's Shaikh Zayed Road, was scheduled to open in the fourth quarter this year.
A hotel in Oman — Millennium Marina Resort — is scheduled to open in November.
"In June-July, we will have our first opening in Saudi Arabia — a five-star hotel in Makkah," he said.
"We are also going to refurbish an operational hotel in Aden this year ... it's going to be the rebranding of a Sheraton hotel," Lakhraim said. "Our target is to operate 50 hotels by 2013 and 100 hotels by 2015 in the Mena region.
"We will have 14 hotels operating in the region by the end of 2010."
Millenium Hotels offers about 1,500 hotel rooms in the region.
Millennium Hotels Vice President Mena Operations Rey Alcocer said: "We are going to add 2,200 rooms to our existing capacity by the end of 2010."
