United Arab Emirates, The Arabian Hotel Investment Conference 2011 (AHIC 2011) opens on Saturday 30 April with a reception and awards ceremony at Dubai’s newly opened Jumeirah Zabeel Saray Hotel, ahead of the two-day conference at the Madinat Jumeirah which runs until Monday 2 May.

AHIC 2011, organised by Bench Events and MEED, has taken an opportunity to showcase the efforts and innovation behind some of the most exciting hotel developments in the Middle East. The categories, being awarded for the first time, are; Best City Centre Business Hotel, Best Mid Market Hotel, Best Luxury Resort, and Best New Hotel.

Edmund O’Sullivan, Chairman of MEED Events commented:
“In spite of the political uncertainty which has marked much of the MENA region in 2011, there is still much cause for optimism in the Arab Hotel Industry. New hotels continue to come on line in the market to much demand and the quality and innovation of each continues to rise. As a result, we believe that now is the time to recognise the hotel industry for their continued commitment to their guests and also ensuring that the industry continues to be favourable to investment.”

Collecting the award for Best City Centre Business Hotel, will be the Phoenica InterContinental, Beirut, with Dubai’s Grosvenor House and Al Manzil hotels named as runners up. Al Manzil Hotel claims the accolade of Best Economy Mid Market Hotel, ahead of Dubai’s Qamardeen and Doha’s Ramada Encore. For Best Luxury Resort, Oman’s Al Bustan Palace InterContinental Muscat proved to be the winner, while The Address Montgomerie in Dubai, and Egypt’s Steigenburger Al Dau Beach Resort were named as runners up.

The Winner of the Best New Hotel will be announced at the Saturday night awards ceremony.

Hotels were judged on certain criteria, including: facilities and amenities, design, financial considerations and sustainability. The AHIC awards judging panel was comprised of select group of Hotel professionals from across different areas of the hotel and hospitality sector, in order to have a balanced overview of the entries.

Jonathan Worsley, Chairman of Bench Events said, in closing:
“The winners and runners up across the announced categories are all worthy recipients. They have all demonstrated a desire to set new, higher standards in the hotel industry. We look forward to announcing the winner of the Best New Hotel Award on Saturday, prior to commencing AHIC 2011. This year’s event has a special focus for owners and investors as we will be looking at the recent events that took place in the past few months in the region, and the impact that they have had on the industry, and how we can move forward.”

AHIC is being attended each year by an average of 500 industry professionals from 42 countries, and has enjoyed a significant increase in participants last year from the hotel investment sector. The event offers a high quality and enormous quantity of debates and panel sessions held by the speakers and participants, and it is a great opportunity that facilitates networking and deal-making prospects for hotel professionals.