Golden Tulip has signed two hotels in Thailand’s notorious resort destination of Pattaya. From the beginning of March 2010 the Royal Orchid Pattaya will be re-branded as the Golden Tulip Resort Pattaya, while The Erawan Hotel Pattaya will be re-branded as the Golden Tulip Erawan Hotel.

Both Pattaya properties will undergo extensive renovations to bring them up to Golden Tulip operating standards and will officially re-open in early March.

Golden Tulip Managing Director, South East Asia, Mark van Ogtrop, said the signing of the Pattaya hotels displayed the strong intentions of the company to the travel industry that it was putting serious resources into finding partners in the region as it seeks more hotels to manage.

“We have a mandate to expand the brand in South-east Asia and these newly-signed properties Pattaya signal a significant start to this strategic process and we have some exciting announcements about more hotels to be made in the very near future,” Mr van Ogtrop said. “Obviously Thailand, with its robust travel industry is a key target for us, but we are also looking at properties in Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia and Indonesia and are already talking to a number of property owners and developers.”

Mr van Ogtrop and his team will manage the Asian expansion from Golden Tulip’s regional headquarters in Bangkok, which has also re-opened the newly branded Golden Tulip Mangosteen Resort and Spa (formerly The Mangosteen Boutique Resort and Spa) in Phuket on 1 February 2010. The group has more than 255 hotels in 38 countries with 27,000 rooms.