Muscat:  A new 176-room Holiday Inn hotel will open in Seeb near the international airport by December 2011, according to a press release issued by Action Hotels.

Shaikh Mubarak Abdullah Al Mubarak Al Sabah, Chairman of Action Hotels, said the agreement with Muscat-based Al Rawahi International has been signed and the hotel will be ready on the agreed date.

Vision

"Oman is committed to developing the hospitality sector and Action Hotels is equally committed to playing a role in this development with a fixed eye on the mid-scale segment," he said in a statement released here yesterday.

He added with a vision for three hotels in Oman, Action Hotels is currently a leading regional investor in the country.

"Oman is an important destination in our region-wide expansion programme," he said.

By 2012, Action Hotels will add more than 2,000 mid-scale rooms across key Middle East gateways, three of which will fly InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) flags comprising one Staybridge property and two Holiday Inn hotels. Holiday Inn is the leading mid-scale hotel brand of IHG, the world's largest hotel company by number of rooms. In 2007, IHG announced the $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) relaunch of Holiday Inn to ensure improved quality and consistency in more than 4,000 hotels worldwide by the end of 2010.

Al Rawahi's chairman, Shaikh Salim Saeed Hamad Al Rawahi, confirmed that his team will deliver to the brand's evolved guidelines.

IHG's Kirk Kinsell, president (Europe, Middle East and Africa), said the group looks forward to further strengthening its partnership with Action Hotels through its third IHG-managed property, following on from the Holiday Inn Seef and the Staybridge Dana Tower in Bahrain. Shaikh Mubarak confirmed both properties are scheduled to open in the kingdom in 2012.

"IHG opened its first hotel in Oman 33 years ago and since then we have continued to invest in the country, building on our rich heritage to become one of the leading hotel operators in the country. Today we have six existing properties and three more hotels under development," he said.

The Seeb property is located just a short drive from the airport, and within minutes of what is considered to be some of Muscat's prime commercial and leisure areas.

Kuwait-based Action Hotels presently operates three properties in the region in the mid-scale and also economy segment in Al Khwair, Muscat, Amman and Salmiya, Kuwait.

The group's fourth property and second in Kuwait is scheduled to open in September in Sharq.