Accor has been chosen by the Munshaat Group, a major Kuwaiti investment company, to manage a new 1,240 suites hotel in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
A five-star establishment, the Zam Zam Sofitel Grand Suites is currently being built at a total cost of USD 600 million, with opening scheduled for September 2006. Zam Zam means Holy Water in Arabic.

Ê“This is an ambitious, complex project,” Accor Founding Co-Chairman Gérard Pélissonhe said, “It is unique in many ways-in terms of religion and culture, research and innovation, and business challenges.

Because of its scope and symbolic importance, the project represents a major step forward in Accor’s development.”

With 1,240 suites, the Zam Zam Sofitel Grand Suites is part of the prestigious Al Beit Towers complex. It is being built on 91,000 square meters of land owned by the King Abdulaziz Foundation and dedicated to the two Holy Mosques. Located 100 meters from the Ka’aba, the 34-storey complex enjoys a direct, panoramic view of the Haram courts.Ê

The hotel complex will include a convention center, a shopping mall and a floor of restaurants that can seat up to 5,000. Most of the suites, more than 1,000, will be marketed on a time-share basis. Accor will manage all of the establishment’s hotel services.

The hotel will have capacity for 6,000 customers and employ 1,500 people, most of them Saudis.
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