HILTON Worldwide has announced the signing of a management agreement with Saudi Arabia’s King Saud University Endowment for the 241-room Hilton Riyadh King Saud University and the 155-room Hilton Riyadh King Saud University Residence – both expected to open by 2012.
“Saudi Arabia is our number one development market in the Middle East,” said Andrew Clough, senior vice president, development, Hilton Worldwide, Middle East and Asia-Pacific. “Riyadh is drawing both domestic and international visitors from strong business and corporate markets and we are delighted to meet this demand with two additional Hilton-branded properties with the same owner. The cross-selling opportunities with our six existing hotels in Makkah, Madinah, Jeddah and Riyadh are tremendous.”
Hilton Riyadh King Saud University and Hilton Riyadh King Saud University Residence will feature all-day dining facilities, health clubs, swimming pools and business centres. The hotel will also offer a spa, retail space, four meeting rooms, an executive lounge and additional food and beverage options including a speciality restaurant, lobby lounge and a pool bar.
Meanwhile Hilton Hotels & Resorts (formerly Hilton Hotels), the flagship brand of Hilton Worldwide, has introduced a refreshed brand name and logo to represent the brand’s extensive global portfolio, which includes more than 70 resorts with more than 32,600 guest rooms in key leisure markets around the world.
The logo change continues an enhanced leisure marketing strategy for the brand. There are currently more than 70 Hilton branded resorts in 25 countries around the world and the Hilton Hotels & Resorts development pipeline includes more than 11 resort properties from Argentina to Ras Al Khaimah, UAE and Hangzhou, China.
Design features of the refreshed logo include:
• Addition of ‘Hotels & Resorts’ to create a clearer distinction between Hilton Worldwide, the corporation, and the Hilton Hotels & Resorts brand
• Introduction of a sophisticated blue logo colour
• Use of a new, contemporary font named ‘Hilton’, which was custom-designed for the brand and
• A smaller cartouche that provides a modern look and places more emphasis on the Hilton name.