Posted by meb at April 27th, 2007

Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts (MH&R), a Swiss international hotel chain that has been operating a hotel in İstanbul since 2003, is set to open two new hotels in Turkey, one in Bodrum, the other in İzmir. Jean Gabriel Pérès, president and CEO of MH&R, discussed their plans at a press conference at the Mövenpick Hotel İstanbul. “We have always believed in the potential growth of the tourism and business sector in Turkey. With our successful and well-established Mövenpick Hotel Istanbul and relationship of trust with our partners, we are confident in further developing the brand as well as the fruitful partnerships within Turkey,” he said.

The Mövenpick Bodrum, a $12-million investment by Mak-Yol construction, will be opened in June this year as a five-star facility in the southwestern holiday resort city of Bodrum.

“Given the success we’ve enjoyed since February 2003 with the existing Mövenpick Hotel İstanbul, we’re delighted to be launching a new hotel project with Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts,” said Savaş Çebi, board member of Mak-Yol. “We are certain that the Mövenpick philosophy will delight the guests at the new hotel, too.”

MH&R is also set to operate Mövenpick Hotel Izmir on behalf of Viltur İnşaat ve Turiszm Inc., which invested $32 million in the new hotel, according to its Vice Chairman Oğuz Özkardeş. The hotel in İzmir is scheduled to open in September. “The great success of the Mövenpick Hotel İstanbul along with its excellent reputation for service and quality forms the perfect platform to expand our brand with the Mövenpick Resort Bodrum and Mövenpick Hotel Izmir,” said Frank Reichenbach, general manager of Mövenpick Hotel Istanbul and regional manager for Turkey.

“We’re delighted with the opportunity to offer our guests the same quality experience in our new hotels.”

“One of our expansion objectives is to gain a foothold in other Turkish destinations, and we are delighted that in 2007 we will be able to offer our guests genuine Swiss hospitality in Bodrum and Izmir, too”, said Stefan Flury, senior vice president of MH&R Europe. “We’re very much looking forward to the many new opportunities that lie ahead in Turkey.”

MH&R, a premium hotel management company with over 12,000 employees, is represented in 25 countries with over 80 hotels existing or under construction and focuses on its core markets in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The current portfolio of the Swiss international hotel chain comprises 59 hotels with 14,244 rooms. Their goal is to reach 100 hotels by 2010. The company’s 2006 turnover worldwide was approximately 700 million Swiss francs.

MH&R has an established presence in the four and five-star segment with two types of accommodation: business and conference hotels and holiday resorts. The hotel group is owned by Mövenpick Holding (66.7 percent) and the Kingdom Group (33.3 percent).

source: Today’s Zaman