Turkey’s business potential excites interest of hotel chains
Posted by meb at January 20th, 2007
After total renovation, the Radisson SAS Conference and Airport Hotel Istanbul will start hosting its guests as a business hotel with 246 rooms and 20 meeting rooms on Feb. 1, 2007
BERİL AKTAŞ
ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News
Istanbul is home to thousands of conferences and business events every year, prompting hotels to flock here to take advantage of rising occupancy rates. Aware of this new market, the Radisson SAS Conference and Airport Hotel Istanbul, a part of the Rezidor Hotel Group, will begin operating as a business hotel in Sefaköy on Feb.1, 2007, after renovation.
Turkey has made serious economic progress in recent years, exports are growing and many international conferences are held in the country. The Rezidor Hotel Group Turkey and Azerbaijan Regional Director Per Kyd Jacobsen, who has been working in Turkey for five years, said, as a hotel, which is largely used by business travelers, these are very important factors for them, and their economy is growing parallel with the vast improvements in the Turkish economy. He said this fact is valid not only for their hotel but also all hotels in the country.
“Our economy has become stronger than we expected and we have almost doubled our profit each year for the past three years. Economic developments in the country are very important factors in this growth because the number of tourists coming to Turkey, or our guests, have not doubled during that same time period. At the same time, the number of businessmen choosing our hotel has increased. It shows that the profile of business travelers has changed a lot,” said Jacobsen.
Radisson SAS has three hotels in Turkey. The Radisson SAS Conference and Airport Hotel Istanbul was the first hotel of Radisson SAS in Turkey and is also the central hotel. Radisson SAS Hotel Ankara was the second one to open and has 202 rooms. The third hotel, Radisson SAS Bosphorus, was opened in Ortaköy and has 120 rooms.
Ten hotels in Turkey by 2010:
Jacobsen says Kurt Ritter, president and CEO of the Rezidor Hotel Group, wants to have more hotels in Turkey, and their goal is to expand in Turkey as a 4-star hotel and plan to have up to 10 hotels by 2010.
“As Radisson SAS, we have more than 200 hotels in 47 countries. The Russian market including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania has been very important to us in recent years. We have been expanding in these countries and Turkey is one of the countries included in our expansion plan,” says Jacobsen.
The Rezidor Hotel Group has five different hotel groups: the Radisson SAS, Country Inn, Missoni, Park Inn and Regent, and it owns royalty interests in hotels in Europe, Middle East, South Africa and Asia. Jacobsen says the Rezidor Group does not invest in hotels but people and that the investment is made by property owners.
“The group is only responsible for operating hotels and offering the best service to guests. Hotels are handed over to us ‘as completed’ and we operate them. We are also experienced in hotel construction and a new hotel is added to the chain every 11 days. We are receiving proposals from property owners from all over the world to operate their hotels. The group has a business development and a technical department in Brussels, where the head office is located,” said Jacobsen.
Radisson SAS Conference and Airport Hotel Istanbul: The closest five-star hotel to the Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, the Radisson SAS Conference and Airport Hotel Istanbul is 20 kilometers from the city center and ideal for business and leisure travelers. All rooms and suites are comfortably furnished and equipped with high-quality amenities. The hotel is very close to the CNR Exhibition Center, the World Trade Center and there is easy access to the Tuyap Exhibition Center via the highway.
The hotel is fully equipped to cater for a wide range of events and functions from conferences to private parties with 14 meeting rooms of various sizes and a Business Center provides complete secretarial and administrative support for delegates.
The Radisson SAS Conference and Airport Hotel Istanbul is also an eco-friendly hotel that supports the Eastern Anatolian Tourism Development Project with the cooperation of the United Nations and the Save the Children program.
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