Written by Louise Birchall

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Budget hotel chain eyes 50 hotels in Saudi Arabia

Premier Inn’s Middle East chief says Gulf kingdom is its biggest potential market in region

By Louise Birchall
A pedestrian passes the company logo for the Premier Inn hotel at Tower Bridge, in London, U.K., on Tuesday, June 17, 2008. Whitbread Plc , owner of the Premier Inn budget hotels, said full-year profit slumped as a gain from selling the David Lloyd fitness clubs wasnt repeated and fewer people stayed at its hotels amid the recession. Photo
A pedestrian passes the company logo for the Premier Inn hotel at Tower Bridge, in London, U.K., on Tuesday, June 17, 2008. Whitbread Plc , owner of the Premier Inn budget hotels, said full-year profit slumped as a gain from selling the David Lloyd fitness clubs wasnt repeated and fewer people stayed at its hotels amid the recession. Photo

Premier Inn is aiming to open 50 hotels in Saudi Arabia within the next 10 years, a senior executive has revealed.

Darroch Crawford, managing director of Premier Inn Middle East & Africa, said the biggest potential market for the brand in the Middle East was the Gulf kingdom.

“We are about to announce our first project and we believe (Saudi Arabia) has the scope for at least 50 Premier Inns over the next 10 years,” he said in comments published by Hotelier Middle East.

This is double the estimate of Premier Inn hotels Crawford envisaged in the kingdom back in 2010.

“It’s got the biggest potential of all of the countries in the region because of the size and the population,” he said, adding: “It could be more.”

Crawford confirmed to Hotelier Middle East that the figures had been revised positively.

“Premier Inn is planning a fairly rapid expansion throughout the Middle East and Africa, with hotels currently under construction at Abu Dhabi International Airport and Doha Education City to add to the four already open in the UAE,” he said.

Further GCC projects are planned in Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia.

The company currently has development teams in place in the UK (where there are more than 630 hotels and 50,000 rooms), Dubai, New Delhi and Singapore.

Crawford added there is “a view to a rapid roll out of the brand in the GCC countries, Morocco, Kenya, South Africa, Turkey, India, Sri Lanka and throughout Asia Pacific”.

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