Hot New Hotel Openings

If you want to get an idea of where the next big holiday destination will be, moves made by the big hotel chains often give clues. The world’s leading hoteliers continue their global expansion, but recent developments show a recurring theme – the big focus of late seems to have been on leisure destinations. So where could you be using your holiday money card in the not too distant future?

The InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has announced plans for a Holiday Inn Resort hotel in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Pagosa Springs is noted as a year round destination, where people can enjoy activities such as golf, rafting and horseback riding in summer, and hit the slopes of Wolf Creek Ski Area in winter.

Already this year IHG announced two other Holiday Inn Resort Hotels – one in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and the other in Jekyll Island, Georgia – with the former now open and the latter due to open by the end of 2014.

Late 2015 will see the Ritz-Carlton Company open its first golf resort in China. Located on the tropical island of Hainan, the Ritz-Carlton Mission Hills will be part of the Haikou Mission Hills Golf Club project and guests will be able to choose from 10 world class golf courses.

Elsewhere in Asia, Ritz-Carlton’s parent company Marriott International has recently opened a Courtyard by Marriott in Seminyak, Bali. The Indonesian property features a lagoon pool and “a whole new concept of dining”.

Japan and Qatar have been among the highlights of Hilton Worldwide’s recent resort developments. In Japan the Hilton Okinawa Chatan Resort opened with 346 rooms offering stunning ocean views and onsite facilities including three swimming pools.

The Hilton Salwa Beach Resort & Villas in Qatar will be a centrepiece of a major new development that will include a waterpark, marina, yacht club, dive centre, cinemas, shops and restaurants. The development, which will claim 257 acres of prime land and coastline, is tipped to become the biggest of its kind in the Middle East.

Carlson Rezidor meanwhile brought its Radisson Blu brand to the shores of the Black Sea this year with the opening of the Radisson BluPrimorie Resort in Gelendzhik, Russia. In this instance an existing resort – which includes three swimming pools, seven restaurants and a nightclub – has been taken over, but just as the new developments elsewhere do the stamping of the Radisson name on this property signals a growing desire among the big chains to serve holidaymakers across the globe.

A choice of hotels in very different locations. Which location, if any, will you be spending your travel money card in?