Six Continents Hotels uses Mediterranean Travel Fair to highlight dynamic Egyptian, Middle East development programme

A spectacular new Inter-Continental resort on Egypt’s Red Sea coast, and a $600 million development at the heart of Cairo, come under the spotlight when Six Continents Hotels highlights dynamic regional development plans at next week’s Mediterranean Travel Fair in the Egyptian capital.

Creating a superb new location for leisure travellers, conferences and incentives, the 450-room Inter-Continental Garden Reef Resort Sharm El Sheikh will become the sixth Inter-Continental property in Egypt when it opens next month.

Opening in the first half of 2003, CityStars Heliopolis Cairo combines shopping, entertainment, office and residential facilities, as well new Inter-Continental and Holiday Inn hotels, and is the most dramatic development of its kind in the Middle East.

"The beautiful new Inter-Continental resort at Sharm El Sheikh, and the two new CityStars hotels, form part of a major development programme in Egypt where we will have 16 properties under management by the end of next year," said Raymond Khalife, president, Six Continents Hotels, Middle East and Africa. 

The company boosted its Egyptian presence earlier this year by taking over management of three prestigious hotel properties in Alexandria. These are now operating as the Inter-Continental Windsor Palace Alexandria, the Inter-Continental Le Metropole Alexandria and the Holiday Inn Resort Alexandria.

Serving the inbound, outbound and intra-regional markets, which offer massive business potential to the global travel industry, Mediterranean Travel Fair takes place at Cairo International Convention and Exhibition Centre from September 17 - 19. It focuses on the non-European Union countries of the larger Mediterranean area, incorporating Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus and Turkey. 

Six Continents Hotels will use the event to promote its unique spread of hotel brands, both within Egypt, and across the Middle East region where the company already manages 64 Inter-Continental, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn properties. In Egypt, two more new Inter-Continental resorts open before the end of next year at Taba Heights and Soma Bay, while the country’s fifth Holiday Inn Resort opens later this year at Taba.

The Inter-Continental Garden Reef Resort Sharm El Sheikh will become an important venue for conventions and seminars when it opens next month. Offering a multi-purpose main conference area, four smaller meeting rooms and a business centre, the resort also features a 350-seat all day restaurant, Oriental and Italian restaurants, beach and lobby bars, as well as a Tex-Mex action bar. It boasts a health and leisure club, eight tennis courts, two basketball courts, free-form swimming pools, jacuzzi, and childrens' club.