InterContinental Hotels Group to manage new hotels in Dubai and Lagos

The same-day signing of management contracts for two new properties in Dubai and the Nigerian capital, Lagos, by InterContinental Hotels Group has highlighted the company’s plans for continued expansion in the Middle East and Africa.

IHG plans to follow up the signing of agreements for the InterContinental Dubai Festival City and the InterContinental Lagos with further expansion of the InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn chains over the next few years.

“We’re looking to expand each of the brands with more new properties in cities and resorts across the region,” said Chris Moloney, chief operating officer, InterContinental Hotels Group, Middle East and Africa. “This goes hand in hand with our commitment to finding new and innovative ways to further enhance the quality of service to all our guests.”

Richard Hartman, managing director, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Europe, Middle East and Africa signed management contracts with the owners of the InterContinental Dubai Festival City and the InterContinental Lagos within an hour of each other earlier in the week in Dubai.

The first of three hotels to be confirmed for Dubai’s waterfront “city-within-a-city”, the InterContinental Dubai Festival City will offer 370 rooms, including 50 suites and 80 Club rooms, as well as 80 InterContinental Residence Suites apartments. The one, two and three bedroom apartments, ranging from 80 to 180 sq metres in size, will be ideal for long-stay guests, including families visiting from other parts of the Middle East.

Forming an integral part of Dubai Festival City’s retail and entertainment destination, the “Crescent”, the hotel will also feature eight restaurants, a spacious Club InterContinental lounge, extensive banqueting facilities to accommodate meetings for 12 to 1,000 people, a large spa and fitness centre, as well as 600 dedicated car parking spaces.

Expected to benefit from the boom in the Nigerian oil industry, the InterContinental Lagos will offer business travellers 221 rooms, an all-day restaurant at lobby level, 1200 sq metres of meeting and banqueting space, a health club with outdoor pool, as well as a speciality restaurant and theme bar. The hotel, which will have two levels of basement parking, is expected to welcome its first guests before the summer of 2006.