The Shangri-La Hotel, Dubai, which will open in March 2003, has appointed Sherryn Bates as director of sales and marketing.

Bates, an Australian national, joined Shangri-La at the beginning of 1997 as director of sales at the Shangri-La Hotel, Surabaya, Indonesia, before being promoted to director of marketing, a post she held until August 2000. She then became area director of sales and marketing for Indonesia and Fiji, based at the Shangri-La Hotel, Jakarta.

In her role Bates will have overall responsibility for sales and marketing for the Shangri-La Hotel, Dubai, both locally and worldwide. She will be assisted by a team of 27.

Bates said that the Shangri-La Hotel, Dubai, is not only the group's first hotel in the Gulf, it is its first hotel outside Asia Pacific and represents an opportunity to demonstrate the Shangri-La culture and hospitality in an international arena.

Shangri-La has signed a management agreement with UAE-based Al Jaber Group to operate the deluxe five-star Shangri-La Hotel, Dubai.

The 43-storey hotel, which forms part of a twin tower multi-purpose complex, is currently under development and will feature 301 guestrooms and suites, along with 126 service apartments.

The complex is located near Dubai's World Trade Centre and the commercial districts.

This is the first of three new Shangri-La properties opening in the Gulf in the next three years and will be followed by Traders Hotel, Dubai, in July 2003 and Shangri-La's Barr Al Jissah Resort, Muscat, Oman, in early 2005.

Meanwhile, Joan Lewis has been promoted as director of sales, Western Europe. In her new role, Joan's responsibility will be to increase business from the UK, France, Benelux and Scandinavia.

Lewis joined Shangri-La in 1991 as director of sales, UK, Scandinavia and the Netherlands, based in the regional sales office, London, from which she will continue to operate.

In this position, Lewis helped increase Shangri-La's corporate sales across the UK, the group said.

In her new role, Joan takes over responsibility for France and Belgium, as well as continuing to supervise sales in her original market segments.