Officials at the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference have released the provisional agenda ahead of the 2013 event.

AHIC officials were in Riyadh last week for the first of a series of Regional Briefings scheduled to take place in the build up to the event.

The event was a precursor to the Saudi Symposium stream at AHIC 2013, which will this year take from May 5th-6th in Dubai

“We were very pleased to have almost 70 in attendance for the briefing at the Ritz Carlton Riyadh with the majority local investors, financiers and hotel owners,” an AHIC spokesperson told Breaking Travel News.

Hosted by Alex Kyriakidis, president, Middle East & Africa Continent, Marriott International, the event also saw contributions from Dr Badr Al Badr, chief executive of Saudi Hotels & Resorts; Gabriel Matar, head of hotels & hospitality, Middle East & Africa, Jones Lang La Salle; Muhammad Al-Amir, managing director, Riyada International Hotels & Resorts; and Dr Salah Al-Bukayyet, deputy secretary general – investments, SCTA.

All of the speakers at the event will also be participating as speakers at AHIC 2013.

”It was a great way to start the discussion which will be continued in May at AHIC.

“KSA is one of the best performing hotel markets in the world,” said Philip Wooller, area Director for the Middle East & Africa of STR Global, who gave a review presentation on the whole MENA region focusing on KSA.

“The Hotel Performance of some of the key cities in Saudi Arabia are comparable with the well established cities of London, Paris, Tokyo and New York with Jeddah achieving similar occupancies and Riyadh surpassing the Average Rate.

“The next two to three years will see a considerable increase in hotel room supply particularly in Riyadh, Jeddah and Makkah but with the large government supported projects across the country I see no reason why demand will not keep pace with the new supply.”

More information on AHIC 2013 here.