Rezidor launches Park Inn brand in Benelux and other international news
Rezidor launches Park Inn brand in Benelux
The Rezidor Hotel Group has launched the first Park Inn hotel in Benelux with the opening of the Park Inn Liege at the new passenger terminal of Liege Airport in Belgium. The 100-room mid-market property includes a restaurant, bar, eight meeting rooms, a crew lounge and a gym. It is located within one of the largest industrial areas of Liege and is easily accessible from the highways directing to Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, Cologne and Luxembourg. "Park Inn is our fastest growing brand, and we are glad to launch it in Belgium," said Kurt Ritter, president and chief executive officer of the Rezidor Hotel Group. "With this new hotel, we strengthen our position as one of the leading airport hotel operators in Europe."
Accor to open first hotel in TaiwanAccor is to launch its first hotel in the South East Asian country of Taiwan with the opening of the Novotel Taoyuan located near the capital city of Taipei's international airport. The 360-room hotel, which is scheduled to open in late 2009, will be the closest hotel to the airport, located 35km from Taipei's city centre. Accor Asia Pacific's managing director Michael Issenberg said: "Novotel Taoyuan will be a stylish addition to a well established airport for visiting business, leisure or transit passengers." The management contract for the property follows the opening of three other Novotels at prime airport destinations around Asia over the past year including Hong Kong, Bangkok and Guangzhou.
McDonald's reported to sell off Latin American restaurants
Fast-food giant McDonald's is reported to be planning the sale of its outlets in Latin America to an investment fund. According to Brazilian newspaper Valor Economico, the most likely buyer is Brazilian investment fund Pactual in a deal thought to be worth around $600m (£306m), much less than what McDonald's was allegedly asking for. McDonald's denied that it was close to a deal, saying in a statement that the newspaper report was "nothing but rumours". It added: "For the past several months, McDonald's has been conducting a thorough evaluation process to find developmental licensees for our brand in Latin America. But the evaluation process for Latin America is ongoing and no final decisions have been made at this time."
InterContinental to rebrand hotels in Japan
InterContinental Hotels Group's (IHG) Japanese operating venture IHG ANA Hotels Group Japan, is to co-brand and improve 13 hotels in Japan currently trading under the ANA brand. All hotels will undergo product, service and operational enhancements and will be co-branded as either ANA InterContinental, ANA Crowne Plaza or ANA Holiday Inn hotels. The co-branding programme will start with the repositioning of the flagship ANA hotel Tokyo to ANA InterContinental Tokyo on 1 April.
Bob Marley spa to open in June
The family of the late Jamaican reggae star Bob Marley is to open a new day spa at his summer retreat near Nassau in the Bahamas. The property, which will be called the Natural Mystic Spa, is set to open on 1 June. It will fuse African, Asian and Caribbean beauty rituals and will cover 1,500sq ft including three treatment rooms, herbal steam-baths, a tea lounge, whirlpool and a limestone steam-room.
By Kerstin Kühn
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