Millennium and Copthorne to open 20 hotels in Saudi Arabia

Millennium and Copthorne Middle East and Africa (MEA) has revealed an agressive growth plan that forms part of a wider strategy to operate a total of 50 properties in the region by 2017.

Speaking at GIBTM 2014 in Abu Dhabi, Ali Hamad Lakhraim Alzaabi, president and CEO of Millennium and Copthorne Middle East, said: "In the last three years, we have expanded in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Religious and business tourism in these two regions are the driving forces for hotel expansion in the Middle East. Our plan is to expand throughout the entire Kingdom of Saudi Arabia." 

The hotel group will open properties in Saudi Arabia's main cities of Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah and Medina, as well as second-tier cities such as Hayel, Jizan and Baha.

The hotel group's next flagship property for MICE will be the Millennium Hotel and Convention Centre in Kuwait City, which will open towards the end of 2014. The property will have 4,000sqm of meetings space and 307 rooms.

Studio M, the hotel group's three-star range of hotels, will also be expanded throughout the region.

New hotels are also planned in Dubai to cater for the World Expo 2020, as well as Oman and Kuwait.

GIBTM, the Gulf Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings Exhibition, runs from 24-26 March at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC).