The third quarter of 2005 ended with positive results for the European hotel industry, whose revenue increased by 2.4 percent, despite London´s terrorist attacks and the still uncertain international climate.
Scandinavia and the new EU countries, with Hungary and Poland leading the way, are doing very well and show the best results.
Accor announced a major expansion of its Indonesian hotel network with five new hotels, strengthening its position as the leading international hotel management in the country.
Three Novotel and two Mercure hotels are being added, including the pioneering launch of the first Accor Premiere Vacation Club (APVC) property in Indonesia, on the resort island of Bali.
The newest resort on Dominica is the Jungle Bay Resort & Spa, a 55-acre tropical rainforest retreat on the southeast coast.
The resort borders Morne Trois Pitons National Park, the only UNESCO World Heritage Park in the eastern Caribbean.
The luxurious five-star Ladera Resort, an environment-friendly lodging perched high on the hills above the town of Soufriere in the south of St Lucia, has been voted the best hotel in the world by readers of Conde Nast Traveler in America.
In the readers´ survey (the results of which appear in the November issue of the magazine) Ladera not only topped the Best Hotel in the Caribbean sector, but also achieved the highest score of any hotel in the world in the Best of the Best overall hotel category.
Hyatt Regency Trinidad, a high-rise five-star hotel to be constructed at the Port of Spain International Waterfront Development along the waterfront of Trinidad and Tobago´s capital city, will be a premier destination for business travelers and convention goers when completed in late 2007.
Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback and Associates, an Atlanta-based architecture, interior design and urban planning firm, is designing the 428-room hotel, part of a new eight-acre mixed-used development along the waterfront in Port of Spain.
Hilton Group announced last week the completion of the sale of 15 hotels in the UK to The Managed Hotels Unit Trust, with funding arranged by RBS Group. The purchase price of the hotels is £382.4 million. The final consideration is subject to adjustment to reflect interest rate movements today which are expected to be minor.
The hotels are forecast to deliver 2005 EBIT of £27.7 million (it peaked £23.6 million in 2004) and have a net book value of £341.4 million. The company is also in very advanced discussions concerning the sale of the Hilton at Edinburgh Airport to the same party.