Accor Middle East is strengthening its presence in Saudi Arabia, with plans to open three new hotels by the end of 2012.

Management contracts have also been signed on a further two hotels, potentially adding five new properties to the existing Accor portfolio of ten hotels in the Middle Eastern destination.

At present Accord Middle East offers 2,190 rooms in five different cities.

Christophe Landais, Accor Middle East managing director, said: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an important market for Accor and forms a key part of our strategic development plans for the region.

“Our expansion plans reflect the growing demand for high quality hotels as the tourism industry in KSA rapidly expands.”

Existing Accor properties are offered under the Sofitel, Novotel and Mercure brands.

A total of five new hotels are currently under construction or at design phase and will bring the network to a total of 15 hotels at horizon 2014; Novotel Dammam Business Park, 2011, Ibis Riyadh Olaya Street, 2012, Ibis Yanbu, 2012, Ibis Jeddah Malik Road, 2014, Adagio Jeddah Malik Road, 2014.

Saudi Arabia

The Saudi hotel market is currently in a process of maturation, argues Accor.

While most of the high-quality hotel supply had been developed so far in the five-star segment, and to a lesser extent in the four-star segment, Accor is seeing the emergence of a real demand for other products.

This includes the economy three-star segment, which is for the moment only fulfilled by a local and unbranded hotel supply, most of the time lacking high-quality standards.