GOLDEN TULIP WELCOMES GOLDEN TULIP AL BARSHA

Amersfoort (NL)/Lausanne (CH), 15 September 07- Golden Tulip Hospitality is proud to announce its latest addition to its hotel portfolio in the Middle East; Golden Tulip Al Barsha. The hotel opened its doors on June 1st 2007.

Located in the Al Barsha area of Dubai, the 125-room (10 executive suites) Golden Tulip Al Barsha caters the corporate and tourist segment alike. The hotel provides a flexible configuration of accommodation, playing an active role in the continued development of the tourism sector in the UAE and the city of Dubai.

The owning company, Noor Capital’s CEO Dr. Hani Shammah comments, “We are pleased to sign with a strong international hotel management company. Our hotel, located in Al Barsha, will be our first venture in the hospitality industry and we look forward to having many more. We believe that the Golden Tulip Management, with their regional office in Dubai will make a strong platform to the success of our property with their knowledge of the mina region, the market place and strength of worldwide exposure.”

Hans W. R. Kennedie, President and C.E.O. of Golden Tulip Hospitality, explains: “It is with great excitement that we welcome Golden Tulip Al Barsha to our family. This beautiful property is yet another great recognition to Golden Tulip’s success in the region. Our customers worldwide will avail of the services of this new hotel, that complements yet strengthen our deliverables for all our Golden Tulip customers worldwide and serving the local community in the UAE, meeting our slogan, “international standards, local flavours”.”

Amine E. Moukarzel, Senior Vice-President, Middle East & Africa, at Golden Tulip Hospitality adds; “We thank our owners and are very pleased to have Noor Capital as our partners in the UAE, developing the Golden Tulip Al Barsha. With this addition we have become a major contributor to hospitality, business and tourism in the Middle East. We aim at providing technical service assistance in the preparation of the hotel with its standards, its concepts, design and offerings as a state of the art hotel, with food and beverage outlets. This hotel will complement our presence in the region getting closer to our goal; have a Golden Tulip hotel in every Arab city”.

With the addition of the Golden Tulip Al Barsha the current hotel portfolio in the Middle East & Africa comprises of 36 hotels with over 6000 rooms in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen and aiming to reach 50 hotels, inns & resorts by the year 2010.

About Golden Tulip Al Barsha

The Golden Tulip al Barsha offers an all day dining restaurant, a Lebanese, Chinese and Indian restaurant as well as a sports bar and a night club, banquet hall, meeting facilities, internet connectivity throughout the hotel, a pool, fitness centre and health club.

The 125 room hotel is located in the up coming Al Barsha area of Dubai, just off the Sheikh Zayed road and few steps from the “Mall Of The Emirates”, 1 minute drive from the “Madinat Jumeirah”, and a short 4 minutes drive to “Ibn Batuta Mall”. With its stylish design concept and décor the Golden Tulip Al Barsha adds up another milestone in quality four star deluxe hotels in the region.

About the Golden Tulip Hospitality Group

Golden Tulip Hospitality Group (www.goldentulip.com), with its head offices in Amersfoort, The Netherlands and Lausanne, Switzerland, is a worldwide hospitality company with more than 909 hotels, 81.000 rooms in more than 50 countries. The Golden Tulip Hospitality Group franchises and manages hotels in Europe, the Middle East & Africa, the Asian Pacific Region and the Americas. In 2006, Hotels Magazine has ranked this company the 18th largest hotel chain.

As a multi-brand hospitality firm, the Golden Tulip Hospitality Group offers services in the two, three, four and five star categories. On the two-star side Golden Tulip has an alliance with the French B&B hotel chain. The three-star concept is the Tulip Inn for the limited-service first-class category, the four-star category falls under the Golden Tulip brand for the Superior First-Class business and Resort hotels and the recently introduced five-star concept Royal Tulip. In addition Golden Tulip offers its services through its commercial alliance with TOP International, a German based hotel consortium.

In the fall of 2006, Golden Tulip introduced BRANCHE, Restaurant, Bar and Lounge. This is a free standing restaurant chain, which will have establishments in most Golden Tulip Hotels and Tulip Inns operated by Golden Tulip. (For more information please visit www.brancherestaurants.com)

For more information, please contact:
Golden Tulip Hospitality Group
Ms. Rocio Manzanares –
Corporate Communication Manager
Tel: +31 33 2544 828
Fax: +31 33 2544 816
E-Mail: rocio.manzanares@goldentuliptop.com
Web: www.goldentulip.com