Holiday Inn Opens First Hotel in the Maldives in September

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(News Source: InterContinental Hotels Group)

(MALE, MALDIVES) -- The Maldives will see the opening of the first international-class hotel for its capital city, Malé.  The 117-room Holiday Inn Malé will open September 1, 2009.  At 15-storys, Holiday Inn Malé is the city's newest and tallest hotel in the Maldives and in a 750-kilometer radius, commanding an unrivaled view of the harbor and beyond.

Just a short, five-minute speedboat ride from the international airport, the hotel will offer world-class meetings and conference facilities, food and beverage outlets, extensive recreation and leading-edge communication facilities.  Located on the corner of Ameer Ahmed Magu, Holiday Inn Malé lies near the harbor front, shops and markets and within a short walking distance to the various historical places of interest like the Old Friday Mosque, Sultan Park and The Presidential Palace.  The hotel provides the perfect gateway to holidaymakers heading out to outlying resort islands.

Sporting the new livery, quality facilities and service of the global Holiday Inn brand family, Holiday Inn Malé boasts of 117 stylish rooms which include 17 Superior Rooms, 77 Deluxe Rooms, 13 Deluxe Ocean view Rooms, 9 Premiere Rooms and a Presidential Suite. All rooms feature either a king bed or two twin beds and offer amenities such as broadband Internet, LCD TVs, minibar, complimentary tea/coffee making facilities and in-room safes.  As for dining and entertainment, there is a Lobby Café, an all day dining restaurant, a rooftop restaurant offering European/Japanese fusion cuisine and a 24 hour in-room dining.

The hotel also has a rooftop swimming pool, a well-equipped fitness center and the first branded Spa in Malé, Coconut Spa.  Other full range of activities include scuba diving and snorkeling, big game fishing, island excursions and picnics, Malé city tour, photo flights, resort day visits, submarine trips and others.

For corporate meetings, there are four versatile meeting rooms including the Grand Ballroom offering 255 square meters of space, all equipped with the latest technology. They provide the ideal space for a range of function requirements: from seminars, board meetings and exhibitions, to wedding banquets and private celebrations catering for up to 180 persons, banquet style, or 240 for a reception.

"Holiday Inn Malé will offer leisure and corporate guests alike a perfect place to relax in comfort or conduct business with ease," said Jolyon Bulley, vice president operations, South East and South West Asia, IHG Asia Australasia. "As the first IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) hotel in the Maldives, this represents an important milestone for IHG.  It presents not only a strategic opportunity for the group to contribute to the thriving tourism industry in Maldives, but also play a significant role within the Malé community."

InterContinental Hotels Group (NYSE:IHG) is the world's largest hotel group by number of rooms. IHG owns, manages, leases or franchises, through various subsidiaries, over 4,200 hotels and more than 620,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world. The Group owns a portfolio of well recognized and respected hotel brands including InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Hotel Indigo, Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Club VacationsTM, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites, and also manages the world's largest hotel loyalty program, Priority Club Rewards with 43 million members worldwide.

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