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28 March 2024

IHG to open resort in RAK

Pascal Gauvin, COO at IHG, and Abdulmutaleb Khraibut, Al Madina Real Estate, signing the contract (SUPPLIED)

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By Staff

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), the world’s largest hotel group by number of rooms, on Thursday announced it had signed an agreement with Kuwaiti-owned Almadina Real Estate Development to open a 442-room Crowne Plaza Resort in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE. The hotel is currently under development on the manmade Marjan Island, giving it the ideal seafront resort location for attracting leisure and business tourism.

Scheduled to open in 2015, Crowne Plaza Resort Ras Al Khaimah will span more than 18,000 square metres and feature nine food and beverage outlets. These include an all-day dining restaurant with show kitchen, an alfresco dining terrace, a cigar lounge, two coffee shops, a pool bar, and traditional bar and nightclub. Corporate guests from the region are well catered for with an expert Crowne Plaza events team and six state-of-the-art meeting rooms. The hotel’s state-of-the-art leisure and fitness facilities will include a spa, fitness centre and beauty salon, as well as nursery and indoor souk. 

The resort will be located on the Marjan Island development, which sprawls across 2.7 million square metres of reclaimed land.  Close to Ras Al Khaimah International Airport and only an hour’s drive from Dubai the resort is expected to attract both international tourists and local UAE residents.

Pascal Gauvin, IHG’s Chief Operating Officer, for India, Middle East and Africa, said: “The Marjan Island development is set to become an exciting destination, and it is the perfect setting for our first Crowne Plaza Resort in the UAE. Offering an idyllic beachfront setting, a fantastic selection of F&B options, and all the services and facilities you normally associate with Crowne Plaza, we expect the resort to set a new benchmark for the brand.”

Abdulmutaleb Khraibut, Member of the Board, Al Madina Real Estate Development, said: “Ras Al Khaimah is evolving as a unique tourist destination and we have secured one of the best locations in the Emirate for our development. Combining this with IHG’s management experience and the Crowne Plaza brand, we are confident that the resort will quickly gain popularity as a destination in itself.”  

“We are delighted to increase our portfolio of international hotel brands by introducing the prestigious brand of Crowne Plaza to Ras Al Khaimah, marking the entry of the first IHG property to the Emirate,” commented Victor Louis, Chief Operating Officer, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority.

The resort will become the second IHG managed hotel in Ras Al Khamiah when it opens, with an InterContinental due to open in 2014.  There are 64 Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts in more than 60 countries around the world, including 5 in the UAE.  An additional 18 Crowne Plaza hotels are in the global development pipeline.